title: In numbers we trust?
abstract: Scientists go to great lengths to ensure that data are collected and analysed properly, so why, asks Eve Marder, do they apply different standards to data about the number of times research papers have been cited and viewed?
authors.affiliation: Eve Marder is an eLife senior editor, and is in the Department of Biology and the Volen National Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, United States marder@brandeis.edu.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marder
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing; D012586:Science; D057386:Search Engine
keywords: article-level metrics; eLife; living science; publishing; research assessment; scientific publishing