@article{5826,
  keywords = {Academic careers, higher education, impact factor, institutional policy, scholarly communications},
  author = {Erin C McKiernan and Lesley A Schimanski and Carol Muñoz Nieves and Lisa Matthias and Meredith T Niles and Juan P Alperin},
  editor = {Emma Pewsey and Peter Rodgers and Björn Brembs},
  title = {Use of the Journal Impact Factor in academic review, promotion, and tenure evaluations},
  abstract = {We analyzed how often and in what ways the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is currently used in review, promotion, and tenure (RPT) documents of a representative sample of universities from the United States and Canada. 40% of research-intensive institutions and 18% of master’s institutions mentioned the JIF, or closely related terms. Of the institutions that mentioned the JIF, 87% supported its use in at least one of their RPT documents, 13% expressed caution about its use, and none heavily criticized it or prohibited its use. Furthermore, 63% of institutions that mentioned the JIF associated the metric with quality, 40% with impact, importance, or significance, and 20% with prestige, reputation, or status. We conclude that use of the JIF is encouraged in RPT evaluations, especially at research-intensive universities, and that there is work to be done to avoid the potential misuse of metrics like the JIF.},
  year = {2019},
  journal = {eLife},
  volume = {8},
  pages = {e47338},
  month = {2019-07-31},
  issn = {2050-084X},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.47338},
  doi = {10.7554/eLife.47338},
}