Are Journal Impact Factors another key threatening process for Australian fauna?

Crowther, M.S., Lunney, D. and Parnaby, H. (2012) Are Journal Impact Factors another key threatening process for Australian fauna? In: Banks, P., Lunney, D. and Dickman, C., (eds.) Science under siege: zoology under threat. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Mosman, NSW, Australia, pp. 134-139.

Abstract

We are concerned at how research agendas of science, and conservation biology in particular, are potentially being deformed by the dominant influence of a single entity, Journal Impact Factors, which in turn reflect the business model of the USA-based global corporate entity Thomson Reuters. We are particularly concerned that this single metric results in systematic suppression of research vital for conservation biology in Australia. We outline the ways by which Journal Impact Factors impact negatively on the kinds of research which underpin the conservation of Australia's biodiversity. We argue that the influence of this scheme on Australian science needs to be changed. A new formula will require a much greater emphasis on an Australian, not an American, perspective, and a decoupling of the metric of impact factor from a business model for publishing houses.

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology
Publisher:	Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/25935

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