Counting on citations: a flawed way to measure quality

Med J Aust. 2003 Mar 17;178(6):280-1. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05196.x.

Abstract

The journal Impact Factor and citation counts are misconstrued and misused as measures of scientific quality. Articles must be read in order to judge their quality. We have introduced a system, which may be easily replicated, to identify the best articles published in a journal.

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Bibliographic
  • Humans
  • Peer Review
  • Periodicals as Topic / standards*
  • Periodicals as Topic / statistics & numerical data*
  • Quality Control
  • Research / standards