Hello all:
As an "amateur observer" of this mailing list, I have barely
participated
to any discussion in the past. However, when I read about ranking journals
for
more accurate evaluation of citations, I couldn't help to myself to comment.
I believe that an attempt of this kind is an ill-posed problem. Who
on earth
will rank the journals, and on what grounds? For instance, Philosophical
Magazine is
highly acclaimed journal in Europe, especially in the UK. However, it is not
as widely
read as Phys. Rev. in my opinion. To someone residing in US Phys. Rev B
might have
a much higher weight, whereas the opposite might be true for someone living
in the UK.
Similar examples can be given but I believe the situation is clear.
Furthermore, there are
numerous papers published in an array of "good" journals where powder
diffraction as the
"main tool", however, the emphasis is purely on science & engineering. Those
journals are
mostly not related to diffraction, e.g. Acta Materiala, J. Appl. Phys., Jpn.
J. Appl. Phys. etc etc.
As you may have realized, the example I gave is not from the diffraction
community per se. While
the efforts could be confined to powder diffraction journals only, such an
attempt would be more
a diservice than good-service to the diffraction community. It is clear to
me that ranking journals by
"weight" is a futile endeavor which will do no good to anyone.
Cordially submitted,
E. K. Akdogan, Ph. D.
Research Associate
Center for Ceramic Research
Rutgers University
607 Taylor Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8065
Phone: (732)-445 5614
Fax : (732)-445 5577
E-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Chateigner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 9:55 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Most cited powder diffraction papers
I agree on Alan's remark Armel,
and also on superconductor-related papers that could have artificially high
levels of citation. It will be very hard however to satisfy everybody
without putting all the citations about crystallography ! There are so many
fields and so many interests.
We may have a look at Cambridge (UK) Univ, before hiring someone they
consult (if I remember correctly, that's what I heard from Ekhard Salje), a
procedure that weights for the journal rank. Well, a beginning already !
daniel
