Re: [ECOLOG-L] Are page charges related to Impact Factor?

2017-04-13 Thread Malcolm McCallum 
This won't really work because there are hundreds of non-predatory journals
that have no impact factor.
Further, impact factor is confounded by a multitude of issues central to
why so many have been rejecting it.

It is already a fact that impact factor is a better predictor of whether a
paper will need to be retracted than it is an indicator of whether or not a
paper will be cited.

What does that tell you?

When you rate nonparametric data with parametric stats you are going to
have some serious illusions.
Impact factor is a mean, thus a statistic intended for use with a
parametric distribution.
Citation rates of journals are not parametrically distributed, in fact,
they are not even close to parametric.  The last study demonstrated they
are a power curve.
Good job JCR.

On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 5:51 AM, Mudelsee M <
mudel...@climate-risk-analysis.com> wrote:

> Dear Jorge,
>
> good question!
>
> One could study it by taking paired data, let us say: average article
> processing fee (APF) and Impact Factor (IF). (Admittedly a lot of data
> gathering work!)
>
> The first thing would be to make a scatter plot and look wether the data
> are compatible with a linear or at least monotonic relation between APF and
> IF. One can use Pearson's correlation coefficient (linear relation) or
> Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (monotonic relation). (Caution
> needs to be exercised when assessing the significance and accuracy of these
> correlation numbers since the standard packages usually assume Gaussian
> distributions, w´hich very likely seems not to be the case for either APF
> or IF. (One may study the distributions using histograms or, more advanced,
> kernel estimation.)
>
> If the data appear incompatible with a monotonic function, then this is a
> challenge to go beyond the scatterplot analysis; nonlinear measures (mutual
> information) could help, but it may be difficult to assess the associated
> uncertainties.
>
> My gut feeling is that at first order the model may be monotonic: high-IF
> journals should not rely in first instance on making money from APF, while
> low-IF (especially "predatory") "journals" should rely on APF more strongly.
>
> I have not check the research literature whether such analyses have
> already been done.
>
> I am sorry if this answer is too long, but I thought to take this
> opportunity to illustrate the usefulness of statistical science.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Manfred
>
>
> Am 11.04.2017 um 18:29 schrieb Jorge A. Santiago-Blay:
>
>> Are page charges related to Impact Factor?
>>
>> Dear Colleagues:
>>
>> I just finished listening to a great talk of recent scholarly
>> publication trends and, as I reflect on the talk, I wonder if any of you
>> know whether there is a relationship between the Thomson Reuters IF and
>> page charges for scholarly journals.
>>
>> If any of you know, please send me an email to blayjo...@gmail.com
>> 
>>
>> Apologies for potentially duplicate emails.
>>
>> Gratefully,
>>
>> Jorge
>>
>> Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
>> blaypublishers.com 
>>
>> 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published
>> in */LEB/* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/
>>
>> 2. Free examples of papers published
>> in */LEB/*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/.
>>
>> 3. /Guidelines for Authors/ and page charges
>> of */LEB/*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ /./
>>
>> 4. Want to subscribe to */LEB/*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/
>>
>>
>> http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/
>> http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
>>
>
> --
> Dr. Manfred Mudelsee
>
> Chief Executive Officer
> Climate Risk Analysis
> Kreuzstrasse 27
> Heckenbeck
> 37581 Bad Gandersheim
> Germany
>
> Telephone: +49 5563 9998140
> Email: mudel...@climate-risk-analysis.com
> URL: http://www.climate-risk-analysis.com
> Skype: mudelsee1
> LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/mudelsee
> Twitter: @MMudelsee
>
> Climate Time Series and Risk Analyses
> Book: http://www.manfredmudelsee.com/book/
> Courses: http://www.climate-risk-analysis.com/courses/
>



-- 
Malcolm L. McCallum
Aquaculture and Water Quality Research Scientist
School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Langston University
Langston, Oklahoma


Link to online CV and portfolio :
https://www.visualcv.com/malcolm-mc-callum?access=18A9RYkDGxO
Google Scholar citation page:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lOHMjvYJ&hl=en
Academia.edu:
https://ui-springfield.academia.edu/MalcolmMcCallum/Analytics#/activity/overview?_k=wknchj
Researchgate:
 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Malcolm_Mccallum/reputation?ev=prf_rep_tab

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Re: [ECOLOG-L] Are page charges related to Impact Factor?

2017-04-13 Thread Mudelsee M 

Dear Jorge,

good question!

One could study it by taking paired data, let us say: average article 
processing fee (APF) and Impact Factor (IF). (Admittedly a lot of data 
gathering work!)


The first thing would be to make a scatter plot and look wether the data 
are compatible with a linear or at least monotonic relation between APF 
and IF. One can use Pearson's correlation coefficient (linear relation) 
or Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (monotonic relation). 
(Caution needs to be exercised when assessing the significance and 
accuracy of these correlation numbers since the standard packages 
usually assume Gaussian distributions, w´hich very likely seems not to 
be the case for either APF or IF. (One may study the distributions using 
histograms or, more advanced, kernel estimation.)


If the data appear incompatible with a monotonic function, then this is 
a challenge to go beyond the scatterplot analysis; nonlinear measures 
(mutual information) could help, but it may be difficult to assess the 
associated uncertainties.


My gut feeling is that at first order the model may be monotonic: 
high-IF journals should not rely in first instance on making money from 
APF, while low-IF (especially "predatory") "journals" should rely on APF 
more strongly.


I have not check the research literature whether such analyses have 
already been done.


I am sorry if this answer is too long, but I thought to take this 
opportunity to illustrate the usefulness of statistical science.


Best wishes

Manfred


Am 11.04.2017 um 18:29 schrieb Jorge A. Santiago-Blay:

Are page charges related to Impact Factor?

Dear Colleagues:

I just finished listening to a great talk of recent scholarly
publication trends and, as I reflect on the talk, I wonder if any of you
know whether there is a relationship between the Thomson Reuters IF and
page charges for scholarly journals.

If any of you know, please send me an email to blayjo...@gmail.com


Apologies for potentially duplicate emails.

Gratefully,

Jorge

Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
blaypublishers.com 

1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published
in */LEB/* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/

2. Free examples of papers published
in */LEB/*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/.

3. /Guidelines for Authors/ and page charges
of */LEB/*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ /./

4. Want to subscribe to */LEB/*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/


http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/
http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm


--
Dr. Manfred Mudelsee

Chief Executive Officer
Climate Risk Analysis
Kreuzstrasse 27
Heckenbeck
37581 Bad Gandersheim
Germany

Telephone: +49 5563 9998140
Email: mudel...@climate-risk-analysis.com
URL: http://www.climate-risk-analysis.com
Skype: mudelsee1
LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/mudelsee
Twitter: @MMudelsee

Climate Time Series and Risk Analyses
Book: http://www.manfredmudelsee.com/book/
Courses: http://www.climate-risk-analysis.com/courses/

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Are page charges related to Impact Factor?

2017-04-11 Thread Malcolm McCallum 
In general, journals that charge to access articles TEND to have lower
impact factors than those that are open access when comparing apples to
apples.  Since many journals that are not open access do not charge for
publication, there could be some kind of correlation here.  But it is
probably spurious.

However, this relationship is certainly confounded by corporate journal
behaviors.

If you have Corporation A and they have three journals Env 1, env2, and
env3.  They can quickly increase the impact factor simply by recommending
citation in ENV1 of papers from ENV2 and ENV3.  Then, do the same from the
other two.  This is done in several ways, some that are more honest than
others.  However, there is no doubt that this is done.  it is sa phenomenon
related to discipline size.  Large disciplines will always have higher
citation ratings than small disciplines.  Ornithology has more researchers
and journals than herpetology, so the #1 Ornithology journal should always
have a higher impact rating than the #1 herpetology journal.   Similarly,
the #1 immunology journal is higher ranked than the #1 anatomy journal.

Now, if you expand this to the h-index it becomes even more complex.
 h-index scores NORMALLY grow with a journal's or investigator's age,
regardless of quality or productivity.

The Journal impact factor and the h-index both suffer in that they are
parametric statistics being used to examine non-parametrically distributed
data.  Journal citation rating, regardless of how you rate it, is more
accurately described as a power curve than it is a bell curve!!!

Ideally, raw h-index scores should not be used except to compare journals
or people of similar ages and from very similar disciplines.
If you are comparing journals or people who have different lengths of
research careers, then you should use the m-quotient, which is simply the
h-index score divided by the time since their first publication.

There really isn't a good way to compare between disciplines, especially in
a world where multidisciplinary and fuzzy margins of fields make things
difficult to evaluate.  ONe could divide the h-index by the number of
journals or the number of investigators in that field and get a more
accurate assessment, but that is really suspect.

The same can be said for papers.  Old papers will almost always have more
citations than new papers of equal interest.

Simply looking at these ratings is not sufficient to evaluate them.  IN
fact, the citation industry specifically states that citation analysis
should involve multiple citation indices in consort.  So, if one was
evaluating investigators or journals, you might compare their publication
count, h-index (or m-quotient), g-index, and a few others, even including
some social media indices.  Each tells you something different about that
individual's portfolio.  IS it getting cited?  Is it being read? How
frequently?  was it cited/read early on and then ignored or visa versa, or
has it sustained its interest over the years.

A really good resource on this kind o finformation is harzing's website for
publish or perish.  THere is a very good book in there that might be useful
to clear up some of the haze!

On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 11:29 AM, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay <
blayjo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Are page charges related to Impact Factor?
>
> Dear Colleagues:
>
> I just finished listening to a great talk of recent scholarly publication
> trends and, as I reflect on the talk, I wonder if any of you know whether
> there is a relationship between the Thomson Reuters IF and page charges for
> scholarly journals.
>
> If any of you know, please send me an email to blayjo...@gmail.com
>
> Apologies for potentially duplicate emails.
>
> Gratefully,
>
> Jorge
>
> Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
> blaypublishers.com
>
> 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB*
> http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/
>
> 2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.
> com/category/previous-issues/.
>
> 3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*:
> http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.*
>
> 4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/
>
>
> http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/
> http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
>



-- 
Malcolm L. McCallum
Aquaculture and Water Quality Research Scientist
School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Langston University
Langston, Oklahoma


Link to online CV and portfolio :
https://www.visualcv.com/malcolm-mc-callum?access=18A9RYkDGxO
Google Scholar citation page:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lOHMjvYJ&hl=en
Academia.edu:
https://ui-springfield.academia.edu/MalcolmMcCallum/Analytics#/activity/overview?_k=wknchj
Researchgate:
 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Malcolm_Mccallum/reputation?ev=prf_rep_tab

Ratemyprofessor: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?t

[ECOLOG-L] Are page charges related to Impact Factor?

2017-04-11 Thread Jorge A. Santiago-Blay 
Are page charges related to Impact Factor?

Dear Colleagues:

I just finished listening to a great talk of recent scholarly publication
trends and, as I reflect on the talk, I wonder if any of you know whether
there is a relationship between the Thomson Reuters IF and page charges for
scholarly journals.

If any of you know, please send me an email to blayjo...@gmail.com

Apologies for potentially duplicate emails.

Gratefully,

Jorge

Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
blaypublishers.com

1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB*
http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/

2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*:
http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/.

3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*:
http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.*

4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/


http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/
http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm