Journal impact factors still exert ‘undue influence’, finds PLOS study
peter.suber's bookmarks 2026-02-02
Summary:
"Research impact metrics still exert an “undue influence” on hiring and grant approval panels, says a new study which found most scientists rely on journal prestige when assessing an applicant’s work.
Academics have long criticised the use of journal impact factors (JIFs), which measure a publication’s historic citation rates, when assessing the relative strengths of an individual researcher.
But a survey of almost 500 biology researchers who have served on either grant review committees or university hiring and promotion panels in the past two years found most respondents still used this and other “extrinsic proxies” to assess not just the strength of an applicant’s publication record but the trustworthiness of their outputs."