THE INTANGIBLE VALUES OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

摘要

On several occasions we have editorialized about the virtues and defects of the 'impact factor' (IF) and its utilization, particularly in the so-called developing countries, highlighting its consequences for scientific journals in the latter. The IF, conceived by Eugene Garfield in the 50's and calculated since its beginnings by the Institute for Scientific Information, more recently in the hands of the publishing house Thomson Reuters, has played a central role in the evaluation of journals, institutions and scientific papers in those countries and publications that make up the 'mainstream' of science. Originally, it was intended to be an aid to libraries (or to influence in their purchases) regarding what journals to subscribe to, but in time it came to be used as a measure of the quality of the scientific output of institutions and researchers.