The Benefits and Drawbacks of Impact Factor for Journal Collection Management in Libraries

An overview and analysis of the Journal Citation Reports'impact factor is provided here. The historical development, calculation of, and alternatives to impact factor are briefly described. Nine general uses of impact factor, including library collection management decisions, journal rankings,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Serials librarian 2004-01, Vol.47 (1-2), p.57-75
Main Author: Nisonger, Thomas E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic libraries
Citation analysis
Collection development
Collection management
Exact sciences and technology
Impact factor
Impact factors
Information and communication sciences
Information science. Documentation
Information service management
Journal Citation Reports
journal collection management
journal evaluation
Library and documentation centre management
Library collections
research evaluation
Scholarly publications
Sciences and techniques of general use
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Summary:An overview and analysis of the Journal Citation Reports'impact factor is provided here. The historical development, calculation of, and alternatives to impact factor are briefly described. Nine general uses of impact factor, including library collection management decisions, journal rankings, journal decision models, and full-text database evaluation, are discussed. Ten benefits, such as its well-established authority, are listed. Finally, more than a dozen criticisms of citation data in general (e.g., self-citations are counted) and impact factor specifically (e.g., problems with the formula for its calculation) are analyzed. The author concludes that impact factor, if used appropriately and in combination with other criteria, is a valid tool that can assist journal collection management decisions in research libraries.
ISSN:0361-526X
1541-1095
DOI:10.1300/J123v47n01_04