The Fraud of Journal Impact Factors
Elsevier, the giant journal-publishing monster, has always sounded to me like something out of Tolkein, a fallen Elvish city now inhabited only by ghouls and barrow wights, maybe. Yes, I’m a nerd (though not an exceptionally good Tolkein nerd; I never finished The Silmarillion). Here’s a new article that argues academic journal “impact factors” are basically …