Science Journals Artfully Try to Boost Their Rankings

by Sharon Begley Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition), 5 Jun 2006 John B. West has had his share of requests, suggestions and demands from the scientific journals where he submits his research papers, but this one stopped him cold. Dr. West, the Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, is one of the world's leading authorities on respiratory physiology. After he submitted a paper on the design of the human lung to the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an editor emailed him that the paper was basically fine. There was just one thing: Dr. West should cite more studies that had appeared in the respiratory journal. If that seems like a surprising request, in the world of scientific publishing it no longer is. Scientists and editors say scientific journals increasingly are manipulating rankings -- called "impact factors" -- that are based on how often papers they publish are cited by other researchers. Read more