title: The Journal Impact Factor: Moving Toward an Alternative and Combined Scientometric Approach.
abstract: The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a single citation metric, which is widely employed for ranking journals and choosing target journals, but is also misused as the proxy of the quality of individual articles and academic achievements of authors. This article analyzes Scopus-based publication activity on the JIF and overviews some of the numerous misuses of the JIF, global initiatives to overcome the 'obsession' with impact factors, and emerging strategies to revise the concept of the scholarly impact. The growing number of articles on the JIF, most of which are in English, reflects interest of experts in journal editing and scientometrics toward its uses, misuses, and options to overcome related problems. Solely displaying values of the JIFs on the journal websites is criticized by experts as these average metrics do not reflect skewness of citation distribution of individual articles. Emerging strategies suggest to complement the JIFs with citation plots and alternative metrics, reflecting uses of individual articles in terms of downloads and distribution of related information through social media and networking platforms. It is also proposed to revise the original formula of the JIF calculation and embrace the concept of the impact and importance of individual articles. The latter is largely dependent on ethical soundness of the journal instructions, proper editing and structuring of articles, efforts to promote related information through social media, and endorsements of professional societies.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Rheumatology and Research and Development, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching Trust of the University of Birmingham, UK), Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, West Midlands, UK. a.gasparyan@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Armen Yuri
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8749-6018
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Gasparyan
authors.affiliation: South Kazakhstan State Pharmaceutical Academy, Shymkent, Kazakhstan.
authors.forename: Bekaidar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nurmashev
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Biology and Microbiology, South Kazakhstan State Pharmaceutical Academy, Shymkent, Kazakhstan.
authors.forename: Marlen
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2511-6918
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yessirkepov
authors.affiliation: Department of Economy and Financial Management, Kuban State Technological University, Krasnodar, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: Elena E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4690-0031
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Udovik
authors.affiliation: Department of Development and Exploitation of Oil and Gas Fields, Industrial University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: Aleksandr A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1314-2353
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Baryshnikov
authors.affiliation: Departments of Rheumatology and Research and Development, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching Trust of the University of Birmingham, UK), Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, West Midlands, UK.|Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: George D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0828-6176
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Kitas
mesh_terms: D035081:Editorial Policies; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D011643:Publishing
keywords: Editorial Policies; Journal Impact Factor; Periodicals as Topic; Publication Ethics; Publishing; Science Communication