The Journal Impact Factor is under attack - use the CAPCI factor instead. 2017

Eleftherios P Diamandis
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada. ediamandis@mtsinai.on.ca.

The uses and misuses of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) have been thoroughly discussed in the literature. A few years ago, I predicted that JIF would soon be replaced, while another colleague argued the opposite. Over the past few months, attacks on JIF have intensified, with some publishing organizations gradually removing the indicator from their journals' websites. Here, I argue that most, if not all of the misuses of JIF are related to its name. The word "impact" should be removed, since it implies an influential attribute, either for the journals, their published papers, or their authors. I propose instead the use of a new name, the "CAPCI factor", standing for Citation Average Per Citable Item, which accurately describes what is represented by this measure.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D010506 Periodicals as Topic Works about publications issued at stated, more or less regular, intervals. Journals as Topic,Magazines,Newsletters,Magazine,Newsletter
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D015706 Bibliometrics The use of statistical methods in the analysis of a body of literature to reveal the historical development of subject fields and patterns of authorship, publication, and use. Formerly called statistical bibliography. (from The ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science, 1983) Bibliography, Statistical,Analysis, Bibliometric,Bibliographies, Statistical,Bibliometric Analysis,Statistical Bibliographies,Statistical Bibliography,Analyses, Bibliometric,Bibliometric Analyses
D016206 Databases, Bibliographic Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of references and citations to books, articles, publications, etc., generally on a single subject or specialized subject area. Databases can operate through automated files, libraries, or computer disks. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, FACTUAL which is used for collections of data and facts apart from bibliographic references to them. Bibliographic Database,Bibliographic Databases,Database, Bibliographic
D055811 Journal Impact Factor A quantitative measure of the frequency on average with which articles in a journal have been cited in a given period of time. Factor, Journal Impact,Factors, Journal Impact,Impact Factor, Journal,Impact Factors, Journal,Journal Impact Factors
D035081 Editorial Policies The guidelines and policy statements set forth by the editor(s) or editorial board of a publication. Editorial Policy,Policies, Editorial,Policy, Editorial

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