Journal Impact Factor: Is it a valid assessment index for scientific literature?

Abstract

Impact factor of published journals is an index based on the frequency with which a journal's articles are cited in scientific publications. Journal Impact Factor, although used as an index of evaluation of scientific publications since the 1960s, has a room for argument regarding its role as a quantitative marker of scientific quality of a journal. It is also being used to evaluate individual scientists and institutions for the purposes of academic evaluation and funding allocation. And more often it is used by the librarians in selecting journals for library collections. However, it has been much debated in the literature in terms of their value for evaluating research quality. Journal impact factor has its own limitations and adequate evaluation is warranted before it can be widely used as a quantitative marker of scientific quality of journal.