Research assessment and monetary rewards: the overemphasized impact factor in China

Abstract

The assessment of quality in scientific research is a complex problem. The use of more objective scientometric indices in research evaluation emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. These scientometric indicators, among which the most common one is probably the journal impact factor (IF), are increasingly employed to evaluate the quality of scientific research performed by individual scientists, research groups, or institutes. In China, the IF is used not only to measure a journal’s scientific influence, but has become increasingly important as a basis for recruitment or promotion, awards of research funding, grants, and authors’ academic advancement. But in fact, the assessment of research mainly based on the IF will cause much academic ‘froth’, so it is necessary for universities and research institutions to reset the academic assessment system in China. In the assessment of scientific research, more research activities, like the organization of conferences and seminars, the coordination of research groups, and the participation to conferences, should be considered.