Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 22:18:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Sadasivan KP <kps31147@yahoo.com> Dear Lis-Forum Members, The Impact Factor of journals/publications and Citation Counts of papers are well known indicators of their quality/acceptance. Despite the current debate worldwide on its acceptance / reservations, these indicators are still widely accepted by the peers, professionals and funding agencies, etc. , presumably due to the absence of an effective alternative mode of rating. Now a new concept is emerging - as seen publicised and promoted by certain publishers and authors : An Indicator based on the frequency/amount of downloads of a paper ! For instance, the international journal " Biotechnology & Applied Biochemistry" (Publisher : Portland Press on behalf of IUMBM) has widely publicised in their website as follows: ' Top 50 Downloaded Papers: The Papers listed below are the 50 most frequently downloaded Papers for the 12 months to the end of May 2004...' (The list contains HTML Full Text & PDF downloadable options too) The details can be accessed at URL : http://bab.portlandpress.com/bab50.htm This has triggered a debate among the scientists (of my Lab) in favour of and against the concept of "Downloading as an Indicator on the quality of Papers". (Incidentally, the second and third highest downloaded papers happened to have been authored by one of our own Scientists!) I seek the comments/views of our professionals, especially the biblio/sciento-metricians . SADASIVAN KP Head, Library & Informatics Regional Research Laboratory (CSIR) Trivandrum - 695 019 E-Mail : kps31147@yahoo.com OR kps@csrrltrd.ren.nic.in