The Real Value of Research, Publications and Academic Metrics

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The Real Value of Research, Publications and Academic Metrics


The value of research is multi-layered and extends across various domains including knowledge expansion, innovation and technology, problem solving, economic development, health advances, education, social impact, global collaboration, critical thinking, and not just academic metrics
The h-index and citations are metrics used in academia to quantify the impact and influence of a researcher's work. Although they are useful to measure the productivity, and significance of scholarly contributions they have limitations and can be manipulated by unethical publications practices
On the other hand, citations serve as a form of peer review. When other researchers cite a work, it is considered an acknowledgment of the significance, and impact of that work within the scholarly community

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Important Note: Citation metrics, while widely used to assess the impact of scholarly work, are subject to various distortions. Understanding these distortions is crucial for interpreting citation metrics accurately. Typical distortions associated with citation count are Self-Citations, Citation Cartels, etc

Lately, these indices have become so irrelevant as thousands of authors writing hundreds of papers per year. Inflation of paper publications has become the cancer of the academic world. This phenomenon is often associated with factors such as publish-or-perish culture, career advancement pressures, impact factor and metrics, predatory journals, etc
The reality is that the value of research cannot be measured only by publication metrics. Recently, I had an administrator trying to lecture me on the importance of these metrics and the need to publish in “highly qualified” journal
I was not bothered by his attempted discourse as I have a high h-index and citation number. What I found disconcerting was the bean-counting approach. Academics continue to fail to look beyond the numbers
I did not have a chance to tell that person that I have a paper with over 1,000 citations which is not even counted as relevant by the Brazilian “bean-counters” as it was published at an international conference. They only count “the qualified papers” from Periodicals, Journals and Transactions

Great scientists like Fourier, Heaviside, and others, would have no chance to publish their research nowadays. I know great researchers that are not even listed on these academic metrics, and therefore inaccessible and not considered as “qualified researchers”
Great researchers are more interested in their work than in the receptivity of their publications. As Prof. Lewis said: “No one who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work's sake [without thinking of h-index, citations, JCR, etc.], and what people call originality will come unsought”

Comments from a Professor""
Paulo F. Ribeiro, IEEE Life Fellow