What is the scientific paper? 3: The metric

"I agree that access is hugely important, I recognise that we haven't won everyone over yet, and I know we do have to continue working away at the access problem, so I will devote a future post to reviewing that topic. But having thought about it a little longer, I am more convinced than ever that it is not access that is the big problem which is holding back the paper and journal, and open access is not the solution from which all others follow and fall into place. There is one big problem, a single great big problem from which all others follow. The great ultimate cause is not, as I said last week, the journal. It is more basic than that. It is the impact factor...."