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The impact factor fallacy

Frieder Michel Paulus, Nicole Cruz, Sören Krach
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/108027
Frieder Michel Paulus
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Social Neuroscience Lab, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, D-23538 Lübeck, Germany
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Nicole Cruz
2Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
3Laboratoire CHArt, École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris, France
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Sören Krach
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Social Neuroscience Lab, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, D-23538 Lübeck, Germany
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Abstract

The use of the journal impact factor (JIF) as a measure for the quality of individual manuscripts and the merits of scientists has faced significant criticism in recent years. We add to the current criticism in arguing that such an application of the JIF in policy and decision making in academia is based on false beliefs and unwarranted inferences. To approach the problem, we use principles of deductive and inductive reasoning to illustrate the fallacies that are inherent to using journal based metrics for evaluating the work of scientists. In doing so, we elaborate that if we judge scientific quality based on the JIF or other journal based metrics we are either guided by invalid or weak arguments or in fact consider our uncertainty about the quality of the work and not the quality itself.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted November 15, 2017.
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The impact factor fallacy
Frieder Michel Paulus, Nicole Cruz, Sören Krach
bioRxiv 108027; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/108027
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The impact factor fallacy
Frieder Michel Paulus, Nicole Cruz, Sören Krach
bioRxiv 108027; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/108027

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