Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 14:37:12 +0530 From: gargkc Dear Mr. Sadasivan Thanks for your e mail. In my opinion it is not proper that the Downloading should be treated as an Indicator of the quality of Papers. also it is not clear from the attached list which are the the second and third highest downloaded papers that have been authored by the scientists of your lab.however, a final decision about their quality can be taken only after a citation study of these papers. I may mention that of the 50 papers listed in the site you have refered 14 are review articles, which are cited more frequently than other articles. if you have any other query, pl. feel free to contact. regards K.C.Garg NISTADS ----- Original Message -----

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