Together with a large number of colleagues, CWTS researchers Paul Wouters, Sarah de Rijcke, and Ludo Waltman call for more pluralistic journal indicators. In a commentary published today in Nature, Wouters, De Rijcke, and Waltman argue that the journal impact factor has become a too dominant journal indicator, which is often used in questionable ways in research evaluations. They call for a broader and more diverse set of journal indicators that properly reflect the different functions journals have.
The commentary published today is the outcome of a workshop organized in the Lorentz Center in Leiden in November 2017. The commentary is co-authored by the other workshop organizers: Vincent Larivière (University of Montreal and visiting professor at CWTS), Marie McVeigh (Clarivate Analytics), Bernd Pulverer (EMBO), and Cassidy Sugimoto (Indiana University Bloomington). In addition, it is co-signed by the 18 workshop participants. The co-authors and co-signatories represent a large variety of stakeholders, ranging from experts in scientometrics and science studies to journal editors, scientific publishers, research funders, and Clarivate Analytics as a provider of research analytics (including the journal impact factor).
The co-authors and co-signatories propose to establish a governing body to oversee the development of a more diverse set of journal indicators. Different stakeholders can work together in this governing body. Interested stakeholders are invited to contact the authors to join the initiative.