Below is another insightful “Presidential Message” from Steven McKnight.
Scientific journals, these days, get scored for Citation Impact, by means of a metric that considers only two years subsequent to the publication of their papers. Papers that get cited after this 2-year window do not enhance the impact factor of the journal in which they were published!
For journals, this is Big Business — they live and die by Citation Impact. For scientists, this used to be an after-thought. But, times have changed !! Whether we scientists know it or not, scientists are judged by the company they keep. If we publish our papers in journals that have high impact factors, the benefit rubs off in many ways. If we publish in journals that have modest citation impact numbers, we suffer.
ASBMB Today May 2o16; pp 2-3