[Taxacom] are journal-ranking algorithms code-compliant?

[Doug Yanega]

On 4/13/15 4:44 PM, Roderic Page wrote:
> Hi Doug,
>
> Alas that’s not how impact factor works. It’s a function of both the 
> number of articles published by a journal, and the number of 
> citations, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor
>
> Given that most taxonomic work is likely to few citations (certainly 
> over the two-year period typically used when calculating impact 
> factor). Consider Zootaxa, far and away the largest journal in 
> zoological taxonomy. In 2013 approximately a quarter of all published 
> animal names were published in Zootaxa, but its impact factor in the 
> same year was 1.060 
> http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/support/impactfactor.htm
>
> A mega journal for taxonomy is pretty much exactly the wrong strategy 
> to maximise impact factor.
>
So, if Zootaxa went from 25% of all names to 100%, you're saying that 
its impact factor would DECREASE?

Also, while I see your point in terms of the status quo, are you not 
among the people advocating that scientific names that are digitally 
published get automatically linked back to their original publications? 
If this becomes common practice, will that not mean that every time a 
scientific name appears in print, it will *automatically* create a 
trackable, quantifiable citation event? This is more a matter of how 
people track citations, and is *also* presumably subject to change as 
technology evolves. I admit that I assume it will change to our 
advantage, and in precisely this way. Do you not see this happening?

Sincerely,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82