- JIF is not a valid indicator of the quality of individual papers
- Journal citations are usually skewed with a few articles accounting for the majority of citations. JIF uses an average making it more susceptible to outlier effects.
- Metrics are not normalized and can't be compared across fields
- General journals have larger citation pools than specific journals
- Review articles and meta-analyses receive on average, more citations possibly leading to the decline of innovative unique research
- Higher JIF journals have longer author lists
- JIF is highest in publishing areas with the largest number of researchers (ex: cancer research)
- JIF is highest in areas where research outputs are the greatest
- Has given rise to "citation cartels" where a group of editors ask authors to cite articles from each others journals
- Negative findings or confirmatory studies, which are less frequently cited, won't be published.
- Funding may decrease for areas that have lower JIF
- JIF uses a very brief two year window which is criticized as being two short to accurately account for differences in citation rates between publications
- h-index is sexually biased since females don't produce as many papers
- Encourages self-citation
- The literature will decrease in quality because the main incentive to publish will be to get higher impact metrics
- Relying in impact metrics will increase the divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" in academia
- Can lead to abuse of authorship credit
- Inverse correlation between JIF and reliability of research findings
Casadevall, A., & Fang, F. C. (2014). Causes for the persistence of impact factor mania. MBio, 5(2), e00064-14.
Chapman, C. A., Bicca-Marques, J. C., Calvignac-Spencer, S., Fan, P., Fashing, P. J., Gogarten, J., ... & Chr. Stenseth, N. (2019). Games academics play and their consequences: How authorship, h-index and journal impact factors are shaping the future of academia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286(1916), 20192047.
Mech, E., Ahmed, M. M., Tamale, E., Holek, M., Li, G., & Thabane, L. (2020). Evaluating Journal Impact Factor: a systematic survey of the pros and cons, and overview of alternative measures. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, 26.
