I reprobi e gli eletti (nella storia del pensiero economico) | ROARS

[Google Transl.] The reprobate and the chosen (in the history of economic thought) This year, as always, Clarivate Analytics, the company that owns Web of Science and disseminates Impact Factor data, published a list of journals excluded from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) for misconceptions. The small and integrated world community of historians of economic thought is in shock: three of the journals of the sparse reference package at world level have ended up on the black list because an Italian magazine has mentioned in an anomalous way the two journals of the European society and of the American society of the sector. The story is relevant because it reveals how the producers of citation data sanction the strategic use of citations only in the most striking cases, tolerating widespread strategic behavior that rewards the largest scientific networks. The case also shows how the incentives created in just one country, Italy, can have devastating consequences for an entire world scientific community. Finally, it shows that attempts by small scientific communities to adapt to the system are fundamentally losers. They should take responsibility for their choice. It would be better to refuse to participate in the game of rankings of journals.