As a young scientist, your career depends on the impact of your publications. More in-depth knowledge on the IF calculation, as well as the Hirsch Factor, SNIP and other citation measures can make a crucial difference to how you proceed and shape the future of science.

1. Heidelberg, October 2012
Impact Factors...
...and Science Careers
Dr. Barbara Janssens
www.wordle.net
www.slideshare.com
SCIENTIFIC ...IMPACT<-> ...CAREER
○ A career in science
○ Editor
○ Career
○ About publishing and impact
○ The Impact Factor
○ Web of Knowledge
○ How to improve your impact
○ Title
○ Marketing
http://www.slideshare.net/Barbaja/
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2. WHAT SCIENTISTS WRITE
ž Papers
ž Curriculum vitae
ž Grants
ž Reports
ž Proposals
ž Web pages
ž Conferences
ž Lectures
ž Meetings
ž Posters
ž ...
WHY SCIENTISTS WRITE
ž „Your research is not complete until you publish it“
(Ibn al Haytham, 1021)
— Make a permanent and accessible record of your findings
— Avoid others repeat unnecessarily
ž Publish or perish....
ž Publico ergo sum!
ž Stuff your CV (you need papers to get grants)
— More papers = more eminent scientist (Hirsch factor)
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3. WHERE DO YOU FIND ARTICLES?
Ò Journals/scope, readership: who reads/cites?
Ò Who is your audience?
Ò Search sites
× PubMed/Medline
× Google (Scholar)
× Scopus (Elsevier)
× CrossRef
× BioMed experts
× Open Access journals
× ISI Web of Science (Thomson) – IF
Ò Downloads vs citations
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4. MOST ACCESSED – MOST CITED
DOWNLOADS AND CITATIONS
Ò Most downloaded
É Fast evaluation of interest
É Clickthrough via search engines
É Marketing and visibility
Ò Most cited
É Picked up by many colleagues
É Considered as reference work
Ò Often but not always correlated
É Most downloaded not cited?
Ð Data not believed
Ð Review or conclusions too broad or too specific
Ð Redundant with other publications
Ð Interesting but not to be cited (opinion, ethics,,,)
É Poorly downloaded highly cited
Ð It was cited in a reference work or Review article
Ð It was later found to be relevant work
Ð Accessible to community
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5. Googleology
Ò Influence small portion of google algorithm (2%)
Use of search words in body text:
How often
In which context
Keywords and other metadata ignored by Google, Excite and Lycos
(but not Yahoo)
Ò Semantic searches
É
IMPACT FACTOR (IF)
Devised by Eugene Gar field, founder of ISI (Chairman Emeritus of
Thomson Scientific)
1955
Slide by
Matteo Cavalleri
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6. IMPACT FACTOR (IF)
IF = average number of times articles from the journal published
in the past two years have been cited in the JCR year.
www.webofknowledge.com
Citations
C12
published
Articles
A1
A2
time
published
Year
1
Year
2
Year
3
IF (Year 3) = C12 /(A1+A2)
Slide adapted from Matteo Cavalleri
CITATION LIFETIME
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7. ALL CITATIONS FROM ALL PUBLICATIONS?
Ò No
Ò WOS is selective on coverage
É covers 12,000 journals…
É
É Coverage depends on topic
× Ecology 65%
× Geology 55%
× Nursing 45%
× Information sciences 33%
× History 9%
× Molecular Biology/Biochemistry (80)%
FT Krell, Eur J Sci Editing 2012, 38 (1). www.ease.org.uk
CITES PER PAPER IN 2 YEARS?
Ò
Ò Eigenfactor
É Citations
to 5 years
É Considers from which journals cites come
É
Ò Article Influence
É = Eigenfactor /(# articles in 5 years)
É Average (mean) AI = 1.00
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8. ARTICLE CITE VS JOURNAL IF
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/314/7079/497
CITATION DISTRIBUTION
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9. THE H FACTOR
A scientist has index h if h of [his/her] Np papers
have at least h citations each,
and the other (Np - h) papers have at most h citations
each.
THE SNIP
Since 2010 SNIP = Source Normalized Impact per Paper
SNIP (Journal)= RIP/CP
RIP = Raw Impact per Paper
CP = Citation Potential
(average number of references in the articles that cite a given journal)
Ò Only cited references from articles in the census period, and which refer to
articles within the target period are counted
Ò Only cited references indexed in the Scopus database are counted
Ò www.scopus.com
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10. JOURNALMETRICS.COM
BIBLIOMETRICS....
Web of Knowledge
http://isiwebofknowledge.com
Scopus
http://www.scopus.com
Faculty of 1000 (post-publication peer review)
http://f1000.com/
Australian journal ranking A*, A, B, C
http://www.arc.gov.au/era
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11. HOW MANY ARTICLES WHERE?
WEB OF KNOWLEDGE
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12. JCR JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS
12

13. PLOS ONE
Ò “Each submission will be assessed by a member of the PLOS
peer review will concentrate on technical rather than subjective
concerns and may involve discussion with other members of
the Editorial Board and/or the solicitation of formal reports
from independent referees. If published, papers will be made
open peer review involving
online annotation, discussion, and rating”
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14. PLOS ONE
Ò How many articles?
É 2009 4,403
É 2010 6,722
É 2011 13,781
Ò How many cites?
É Highest (2009): 163
É
É
É 3300 articles < 4
É 600 articles: 0 citations
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15. NATURE
Ò How many articles?
É 10,000 items
É 5,000 articles
Ò How many cites?
É Most cited: 1,621
É 600 zero cites (magazine)
COMPARE
Items…
15

16. NEW JOURNALS
Ò AfterPLOS ONE
Ò Nature Scientific Reports
Ò Biology Open (Company of Biologists)
Ò Open Biology (Royal Society)
ENERGY EDUC SCI TECH
16

17. IF WITHOUT SELF-CITES
17

18. EDITORS AND THE IF
Ò Bibliometrics
Ò Predictthe IF in March (published by Thomson
Reuters on WOS in June)
Ò Monitor citations on the go
É
É Cite in magazine or editorials
Ò
É Review articles in middle of year rather than end
É dec rather than jan
18

19. PREDICT IF ON WOS
Ò Search for articles
É in Publication name
É
Ò Limit Document types to articles and reviews
Ò
Ò
Ò Calculate
C/A
Ò Rough UNDERESTIMATION!
SEARCH
19

20. CITATION REPORT
THE AUTHOR AND THE IF
1. Chose the target journal and priorities
2. Optimize title and keywords
3. Market the article, not just the journal
20

21. CHOSE TARGET JOURNAL
Journal XXX XXX
Publishes similar work?
Scope/recent content?
Quality/impact?
Fast publication?
Charges for pages, color,
open access?
Article format/length?
TITLE
ž The first impression counts...
ž A strong title will attract readers/citations
ž Keep it short: 15 words
ž Clear, informative, raise curiosity
ž Main message of the paper
ž Key words
ž Start with a „quick go“, remodel during writing
process and rethink for some days when the whole
manuscript is ready
Ò Test: http://www.lulu.com/titlescorer
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22. EXAMPLES: COMPARE
Ò ray crystal structure of the complex formed
between a recognition domain on a sensor histidine
kinase (CheA) and its cognate
(CheY) reveals insights into the mechanism of signal
transduction in bacterial chemotaxis.”
Ò “Structure of the domain of histidine
kinase CheA in complex with CheY.”
TITLES TO AVOID
Ó Vague titles
Ó Titles starting with
Ó „Studies on..“ „Implications of…“
Ó „Characterization of...“ „Involvement of…“
Ó „Observations on...“ „Evidence for…“
Ó „Investigations into...“ „Insights in…“
Ó “The involvement of this in that”
— This does that in signal transduction pathway xx“
Ó Titles with jargon or abbreviations
Ó Titles with „new“ and „novel“ (all research is new)
22

23. KEYWORDS
Ò Donot repeat title words – these come up
anyhow
Ò Most cited versus never cited...
Ò Try out in Medline:
É possibly
your keywords should be obvious and short
but bring less hits (and rather your than a
competitor‘s article!)
HAVE A LOOK AT TITLES
Reviews Reviews
+
Yoghurt fermentation at elevated temperatures by Essential fatty acids: Biochemistry, physiology and
- strains of Streptococcus thermophilus pathology
+
Metagenomics: An inexhaustible access to
nature‘s diversity
Streptococcus thermophilus
- carotene production in Blakeslea trispora Production of biopharmaceuticals and vaccines in
plants via the chloroplast genome
+/-
+/- Research Ar ticles
Separation of catechin compounds from different
Application of inkjet printing to tissue engineering
+
teas
+/- Production and characterization of theromstable Research Ar ticles
α
stearothermophilus
Geobacillus Arenicola marina extracullar hemoglobin: A new
promising blood substitute +/-
- Molecular characteriazation of rpoB gene
Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated +
-
from TB patients in Belarus
+/-
Investigating pH and Cu(II) effects on lipase
activity and enantioselectivity via kinetic electrified jets
-
and spectroscopic methods
producing microorganisms Haematococcus
pluvialis and Phaffia rhodozyma in the pure
A rapid, high content, in vivo model of
+/-
and mixed cultures
Never cited...........well cited
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24. MORE TITLES FROM JCS
Ò Suppression of synaptotagmin II restrains phorbolester Ò Secreted antagonists of the Wnt
induced downregulation of protein kinase C alpha by diver ting signalling pathway
the kinase from a degradative pathway to the recycling Ò PKB/Akt: a key mediator of cell
endocytic compar tment proliferation, survival and insulin
Ò Identification of an alpha tubulin mutant of fission yeast from responses?
gamma tubulin interacting protein screening: genetic evidence Ò Metalloproteinase inhibitors: biological
for alpha /gamma tubulin interaction actions and therapeutic oppor tunities
Ò Genetic and molecular interactions of the Erv41p Erv46p Ò Clonal mesenchymal progenitors from
complex involved in transpor t between the endoplasmic human bone marrow differentiate in vitro
reticulum and Golgi complex according to a hierarchical model
Ò A large complex containing patched and smoothened initiates Ò SH3 domains: complexity in moderation
hedgehog signaling in Drosophila
Ò Cell adhesion and motility depend on
Ò Kendrin/pericentrin B, a centrosome protein with homology to nanoscale RGD clustering
pericentrin that complexes with PCM 1
Ò Mechanisms of capacitative calcium
Ò Regulatory mechanisms governing the oocyte specific entry
synthesis of the karyoskeletal protein NO145
Ò Release of an invasion promoter E
Ò Association of human ubiquitin conjugating enzyme CDC34 cadherin fragment by matrilysin and
with the mitotic spindle in anaphase stromelysin 1
Ò Inactivation of MAPK in mature oocytes triggers progression
into mitosis via a Ca2+ dependent pathway but without
completion of S phase
Ò Repression of Wnt 5a impairs DDR1 phosphorylation and
modifies adhesion and migration of mammary cells
WHEN YOU CITE... -> REFERENCES
Ò The references must comply to house style
Ò Ensure that they are cited in numerical order and that
every reference is cited
Ò The work cited should be fair and balanced
Ò Ensure that credit is given to the original discoveries,
including to publications
Ò Use a reference manager (e.g. Endnote) and correctly
format the citations and ref list
Ò Do you read before you cite?
É misprint distribution in citations -> 20% copied�
É http://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0401529.pdf
24

25. THE DOI
Ò Cite per DOI (Digital object identifier)
○ = Publisher/MSnumber
http://dx.doi.org
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.2009xxxxx
Link refers to abstract – send this instead of / before the PDF!
Ò Market your work!
É Press release
É Higlights/columns
É Talks and presentations
É ... Perception counts more than the IF
É ...“publish or perish“
MARKET YOUR ARTICLE
Ò Citedxx times
Ò Accessed xx times
Ò Bookmarked xx times
Ò Discussed on xx blogs
Ò Expert rating
Ò Covered in news and media
Ò …
25

26. PUBLISH OR PERISH
PUBLISH OR PERISH HARZING.COM
Ò Based on Google Scholar
Ò FREE software for citation measures
Ò Especially appropriate for
§ Business, Administration, Finance & Economics;
§ Engineering, Computer Science & Mathematics;
§ Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities.
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27. YOUR REAL IMPACT FACTOR
DISCUSSION
Ò Ameasure is only measure
Ò None is ideal
Ò Does it have to be and continue?
Ò Who is to blame for the current situation?
Ò We…
27

28. ALBERT EINSTEIN
Ò "Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be
counted."
Stefano P, Salerno, Slideshare
WHAT DID YOU BUY TODAY?
○ A career in science
○ Editor
○ Career
○ About publishing and impact
○ The Impact Factor
○ Web of Science
○ How to improve your impact
○ Title
○ Marketing
http://www.slideshare.net/Barbaja/
http://www.biotecvisions.com
http://www.ease.org.uk
28

29. SCIENTIFIC WRITING TIPS
BORING SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE
29

30. WEBSITES
Ò http://www.slideshare.net/secret/oymNwGJBTzqRylp
Ò http://www.wiley.com/authors
Ò http://www.biotecvisions.com
Ò http://www.writeresearch.com.au
Ò http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/exercises/
Ò http://www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/teaching/partii/both/ScientificWriting.pdf
Ò http://www.freelancers.co.uk/
Ò
Ò http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/BIODEPT/wicked.html
Ò http://www.lib.umich.edu/hsl/resources/writing
Ò http://www.ease.org.uk
RECOMMENDED REFERENCES
Ò Shashok, K., Content and communication: How can peer review provide helpful feedback about
the writing? BMC Medical Research Methodology 2008, 8:3,
Ò Cargill, M., O’Connor, P., Writing scientific research articles. Blackwell Publishing, Chichester
Ò Ruben, A., How to Write Like a Scientist. Sciencecareers 2012, March 23, dx.doi.org/10.1126/
science.caredit.a1200033
Ò Seglen PO (1997): Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating
research. BMJ 1997;314(7079):497 (15 February)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/314/7079/497
Ò http://www.harzing.com Publish or Perish
30

31. FURTHER READING
FIVE TOP TIPS FOR YOUR JOB APPLICATION
Ò 1. Imagine YOU are the recruiter
Ò 2. Learn to present yourself in an “elevator pitch”
Ò 3. Actively network
Ò 4. Most important FIRST
Ò 5. Tell stories
Ò
31

32. MOST IMPORTANT FIRST!
Serial position effect
Drain needs
Recall
unblocking!!
Mustn’t forget
to do the shopping...
I’m hungry...
t
Primacy Recency
Deese and Kaufman, J. Exp. Psychol. 1957, 54, 180-187.�
Murdock , J. Exp. Psychol. 1962, 64, 482-488.�
© Andrew Moore
JOB APPLICATIONS: STRAIGHT TO THE TOP OF THE PILE
Ò http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.
32

33. QUESTIONS?
Contact me:
Ò Barbara.janssens@gmail.com
Ò www.facebook.com/phdcareers
LIKE THIS PAGE! WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PHDCAREERS
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