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Does It Matter Where We Publish? Adam Eyre-Walker University of Sussex
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Reasons Prestige peers employers Impact scientific community society
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Measuring impact General difficult to measure Citations Easy to measure Velvet Underground effect “only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band” (Brian Eno)
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Question Do papers of similar quality garner more citations in better quality journals?
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Ideal experiment Papers made anonymous authors journal structure Assessed for quality by experts Assessments confidential Citations tracked
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Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) Each department submits 4 publications per academic (75%) 4 indicators of Esteem (5%) Environment PhD student numbers Grant income Research structure Facilities Superceded by REF
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RAE dataset 1170 papers published 2001 - 2007 Scored by AEW Scored 1 to 4 (or unclassified) Subjects : evolutionary biology, genomics, bioinformatics, ecology, animal behaviour and organismal biology Ranked without reference to journal citations
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RAE scores RAE scoreNo. of papers 174 2539 3401 4103
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Journal quality Impact factor Number times papers published in the two previous years are cited in target year Two components Quality of papers Effect of the journal on citations
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IF categories IF categoryIFNo of journals No. of papers 1IF < 24153 22 < IF < 339134 33 < IF < 433159 44 < IF < 521214 55 < IF < 616128 66 < IF <1028180 710 < IF < 2013110 8IF > 208181
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Citations No. of citations from ISI Web of Science October 2008
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Data For each paper Year of publication RAE score (RS) No. of citations Impact factor of journal (IF category) Otherwise anonymous
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How good is the assessor? Correlation between AEW and co- scorers > 0.7 Correlation between RS and no. of citations within each IF category and within each year
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How good is the assessor? Correlation between AEW and co- scorers > 0.7 Correlation between RS and no. of citations within each IF category and within each year Average r = 0.27 (p<0.001) Average r max = 0.73
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RS v citation correlation r = -0.37 p = 0.005
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Central question Do papers of similar quality accumulate more citations in some journals than others?
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RAE score 2 in 2003
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RAE score 2 p < 0.001
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RAE score 3 p < 0.001
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ANCOVA RS gradep-value30 v 5 10.0052.1 (1.7) 20.0002.5 (0.3) 30.0002.1 (0.4) 40.60-
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ANCOVA RS grade p-valueAll 30 v 5 IF<10 30 v 5 10.0052.1 (1.7)1.2 (0.4) 20.0002.5 (0.3)3.0 (0.3) 30.0002.1 (0.4)5.4 (1.4) 40.60-
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Alternative explanation Systematically underestimate quality of papers in high ranking journals Test Assume no effect of journal Consider correlation between RS and journal (IF) controlling for citations
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Partial correlations YearCorrelation 20010.54*** 20020.49*** 20030.54*** 20040.41*** 20050.31*** 20060.37*** 20070.35***
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ANCOVA RS gradep-value30 v 5 10.0052.1 (1.7) 20.0002.5 (0.3) 30.0002.1 (0.4) 40.60-
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Question Impact factors – relative contribution of Paper quality Journal effect
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Summary Assessor scores correlated to citations strength correlated to age Assessor scores influenced by journal Papers published in higher quality journals accumulate more citations independent of quality F1000 data
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Question Where will we submit?
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Thanks Nina Stoletzki
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Assessor and journal Assume citations measure quality no journal effect
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