Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 22:18:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sadasivan KP
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