The Usefulness of Impact Factors in Serial Selection: A Rank and Mean Analysis Using Ecology Journals

Abstract

This paper investigates the usefulness of ISI Journal Impact Factors in making serial selection and deselection decisions. It shows that Impact Factors do not remain relatively constant from year to year; specifically, the rank order of 56 ecology titles was found to vary considerably over time. The median year-to-year variation in Impact Factors was found to be 21.9%, and the average variability of Impact Factors over a five-year period was 13.2%. The study also found a considerable degree of overlap in the average Impact Factor of serials in the ISI’s Ecology category. These findings cast doubt on the usefulness of relying on a single year’s JCR (Journal Citation Reports) to make informed selection/deselection decisions.