n the natural sciences and in the "hard" social sciences, the impact factor is a convenient proxy, measuring the number of later articles citing articles already published in the journal. There are other, possible quantitative factors, such as the overall number of citations, how quickly articles are cited, and the average "half-life" of articles. There also is the question of whether or not any quantitative factor can reflect true prestige; natural science journals are categorized and ranked in the Science Citation Index, social science journals in the Social Sciences Citation Index.
In the Anglo-American humanities, there is no tradition (as there is in the sciences) of giving impact-factors that could be used in establishing a journal's prestige. Recent moves have been made by the European Science Foundation to change the situation, resulting in the publication of preliminary lists for the ranking of academic journals in the Humanities.
In some disciplines such as Knowledge management/Intellectual capital the lack of a well-established journal ranking system is perceived as "a major obstacle on the way to tenure, promotion and achievement recognition".[7] Conversely a significant number of scientists and organizations see the pursuitimpact factor calculations as inimical to the goals of science, and have signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment to limit its use.
The categorization of journal prestige in some subjects has been attempted, typically using letters to rank their academic world importance.
We can distinguish three categories of techniques to assess journal quality and develop journal rankings:
- stated preference;
- revealed preference; and
- publication power approaches
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