Evaluation by Citation: Trends in Publication Behavior, Evaluation Criteria, and the Strive for High Impact Publications.
Criteria for the evaluation of most scholars' work have recently received wider attention due to high-profile cases of scientific misconduct which are perceived to be linked to these criteria. However, in the competition for career advancement and funding opportunities almost all scholars are subjected to the same criteria. Therefore these evaluation criteria act as 'switchmen', determining the tracks along which scholarly work is pushed by the dynamic interplay of interests of both scholars and their institutions. Currently one of the most important criteria is the impact of publications. In this research, the extent to which publish or perish, a long standing evaluation criterion, led to scientific misconduct is examined briefly. After this the strive for high impact publications will be examined, firstly by identifying the period in which this became an important evaluation criterion, secondly by looking at variables contributing to the impact of scholarly papers by means of a non-structured literature study, and lastly by combining these data into a quantitative analysis.
Department of Education and Research Support, University Library, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. M.vanWesel@Maastrichtuniversity.nl.|Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. M.vanWesel@Maastrichtuniversity.nl.
Maarten
M
van Wesel
D032984:Ethics, Research; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D011643:Publishing / Q000639:trends; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards*; D012108:Research Personnel; D015871:Scientific Misconduct
High impact; Publication practices; Publish or perish; Research evaluation