sábado, 26 de junho de 2010

Um único pesquisador levou o Fator de Impacto de uma revista para o segundo lugar geral

O amigo Benildo Cavada, Professor da UFC, enviou uma bomba sobre como pode ser fácil fazer disparar o fator de impacto de uma revista. O fator de impacto da Acta Crystallographica - Section A aumentou, no último ano, mais de 20 vezes passando para 49.9, maior que o do New England Journal of Medicine, Cell etc. Ela ficou no segundo lugar no ranking de TODAS as revistas analisadas pelo ISI.
Como isto aconteceu? Se deveu à publicação de um único artigo "A short history of SHELX," o qual foi citado mais de 6.600 vezes. O artigo revia o desenvolvimento do sistema computacional SHELX. O artigo inclui uma frase que instrui os leitores a citar o paper quando os programas SHELX, de código aberto, são usados para determinação de estrutura cristalográfica.
Isto é uma demonstração clara de como o sistema é sujeito a manipulações. Vários outros pequenos estratagemas têm sido empregados por editores. Tudo isto deve nos levar a ser bastante cautelosos no julgamento de fatores de impacto e, principalmente, analisar o artigo e não analisar somente a revista onde foi publicado.
----- Mensagem encaminhada ----
De: ….>
Para:….
Enviadas: Terça-feira, 22 de Junho de 2010 9:37:01
Assunto: [ccp4bb] Impact Factors
Dear all,
We are all used to the tyranny of impact factors: high impact publication in "well esteemed" journals, as dictated by the Supreme Authority - excuse me, I meant  Thomson Reuters - often substitutes the judgement of interview panels, grant review panels and sometimes is a decision-maker for lazy referees. A 'high impact' publication in your CV often counts as much as consistent work done for years and is considered the gateway for good jobs and careers. And, alas, your Acta Cryst papers, would not count ...
Since yesterday though, a single person, no other than the ccp4bb bulletin board subscriber and contributor, and an emblematic figure of our community, George Sheldrick, has managed with one action to showcase the flaws of this system. Since yesterday, officially, the top ranking journal according to the official Thomson Reuters Impact factor is: Acta Crystallographica Part A. How was that made possible? Simply by publishing a 'short history about SHELX' and requesting users to cite it. It took two years, but now Acta A has displaced Cell, Nature, Science and even New England Journal of Medicine from the top ranks.
Well, good luck to all the methods-folk who are up for tenure, here is your chance guys and girls ... it will not last long!!!
Best regards,
T…..
Specifically, the publication with second highest impact factor in the "science" category is Acta Crystallographica - Section A, knocking none other than theNew England Journal of Medicine from the runner's up position. This title's impact factor rocketed up to 49.926 this year, more than 20-fold higher than last year. A single article published in a 2008 issue of the journal seems to be responsible for the meteoric rise in theActa Crystallographica - Section A's impact factor. "A short history of SHELX,"by University of Göttingen crystallographer George Sheldrick,which reviewed the development of the computer system SHELX, has been cited more than 6,600 times, according to ISI. This paper includes a sentence that essentially instructs readers to cite the paper they're reading -- "This paper could serve as a general literature citation when one or more of the open-source SHELX programs (and the Bruker AXS version SHELXTL) are employed in the course of a crystal-structure determination." (Note: This may be a good way to boost your citations.)

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