Discernment of Academic Staff Members on Impact Factorranked Journals and Academic Performance in the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Delinking, Stagnation, Academic excellence, SCImago, Clarivate Analytics, Impact Factor (IF)Abstract
This study appraises the discernment of academic staff members on impact factor-ranked journals
and academic performance in the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State,
Nigeria. The aim is to posit if the insistence of the University on impact factor-ranked journals for
academic growth is a drive for academic excellence or an instrument for the stagnation of academic
staff growth. The population comprises all academic staff members of the University. Ninety-three
(93) academic staff of the Alex-Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State participated in
the study. A 46-item structured questionnaire administers to the selected respondents. The Impact
factor is entrenched in scientific publishing as a measure of research output. The insistence of some
academic institutions in Nigeria on Thomson Reuter and Scimago-ranked impact factor journals for
appraisal of academic performance and determination of promotion, tenure, or remuneration has
been with criticisms. Data are analyzed using tables, frequency counts, and simple percentages. It is
apparent the University Vice Chancellor's insistence on Thomson Reuter and Scimago-ranked journals
to the detriment of African-based ranked journals. Hence, departments and faculties should indicate
local journals that are highly rated and used for the appraisal of academic performance and
determination of promotion, tenure, or remuneration of their academic staff members.
References
Adler, N. J., & Harzing, A. W. (2009). When knowledge wins: Transcending the sense and
nonsense of academic rankings. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 8(1),
-95.
Agarwal, A., Durairajanayagam, D., Tatagari, S., Esteves, S. C., Harlev, A., Henkel, R.,
Roychoudhury, S., Homa, S., Puchalt, N. G., Ramasamy, R., Majzoub, A., Ly, K. D.,
Tvrda, E., Assidi, M., Kesari, K., Sharma, R., Banihani, S., Ko, E. Abu-Elmagd, M.,
Gosalvez, J., and Bashiri, A. (2016). Bibliometrics: tracking research impact by selecting the appropriate metrics. Asian J Androl. 2016 Mar-Apr; 18(2): 296-309.
doi: 10.4103/1008-682X.171582. PMCID: PMC4770502.
Ahmed, A. O & Nwalo, K. (2013). Fund Allocation as a Correlate of Sustainability of
Departmental Libraries in Nigerian Universities, Library Philosophy and Practice (ejournal), 936-951. Available at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi.
Aina, L. O. (2016). The Visibility of Researchers: Measuring the Impact of Journals in a
Scholarly Community. Paper delivered at the Redeemer‟s University Research Seminar,
held at the University Auditorium, Redeemer‟s University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria, 6
April, 2016.
Ajao, O. G. & Ugwu, B. T. (2011). Some Problems Facing Scientific Medical Publications in
Nigeria. J West Afr Coll Surg., 1(1), 31-39.
Ajayi, I. A. & Ekundayo, H. T. (2006). Funding initiatives in university education in Nigeria.
Being a Paper presented at the National Conference of Nigerian Association for
Educational Administration and Planning [NAEAP]. Enugu State University of Science
and Technology, Enugu State.
Akinyemi, S. (2013). Funding Strategies for Qualitative University Education in Developing
Economies: The case of Nigeria. International Journal of Higher Education, 2(1): 53-59.
Akpan, R. J. & Afangidehi, M. E. (2009). Funding Initiatives in Higher Education. A Paper
presented at NAEAP conference held at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra
State, September.
Amin, S. (1976). Unequal Development: An Essay on the Social Formations of Peripheral
Capitalism. Trans. by Brian Pearce. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Amin, S. (1997). Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary
Society. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books.
Amin, S. (2003). Obsolescent Capitalism: Contemporary Politics and Global Disorder.
Trans. by Patrick Camiller. New York: Zed Books.
Becker Medical Library (2009). Becker Medical Library Model for Assessment of Research
Impact. http://becker.wustl.edu/impact/assessment/model.html.
Bordons, M., Fernandez, M. T., & Gomez, I. (2002). Advantages and limitations in the use of
impact factor measures for the assessment of research performance in a peripheral
country. Scientometrics, 195-206.
Borgman, C. L. (2015). Digital libraries and the continuum of scholarly communication. J
Doc., 56, 412-430.
Bornmann, L. & Marx, W. (2015). Methods for the generation of normalized citation impact
scores in bibliometrics: which method best reflects the judgements of experts? J
Informetr. 2015;9:408–18.
Bridges, D. (2011). Research quality assessment: Intended and unintended consequences.
Power and Education, 3, 31-38.
Brunner-Ried, J. J., & Salazar-Muñiz, F. (2012). Investigación educacional en Iberamérica:
Entre la invisibilidad y la medición. Magis Revista Internacional de Investigación en
Educación, 4(9), 559-575.
Campbell, L. G., Mehtani, S., Dozier, M. E., & Rinehart, J. (2013). Gender-heterogeneous
working groups produce higher quality science. PLoS One. 8:e79147. [PMC free article]
[PubMed].
Carpenter, C. R., Cone, D. C., & Sarli, C. C. (2014). Using publication metrics to highlight
academic productivity and research impact. Acad Emerg Med: official J Soc Acad Emerg
Med., 21, 1160-72.
Cathey, J. T. & Kader, A. (2004). The impact of the Impact Factor. Saudi Med J., 25 Suppl:
S37.
Chiejina, S.N. (2006). What's new in the revised scheme for the quantitative measurement of
publications and creative works? Some notes for the guidance of operators of the Yellow
Book. Paper presented at the Briefing of Deans, Heads of Departments, and Professors at
the Continuing Education Centre (CEC), University of Nigeria, Nsukka 17th September,
Chong, Y. (2004). The impact factor: Easy measure but unfair yoke. Available:
www.bmj/cgi/letters/329/7471.
Cole, J. R. (2000). A short history of the use of citations as a measure of the impact of
scientific and scholarly work. In: Cronin, B., and Atkins, H. B. (Eds.) The Web of
Knowledge: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Garfield. Medford, NJ: Information
Today. Pp. 281-300.
Cronin, B. (2001). Bibliometrics and beyond: some thoughts on web-based citation analysis.
J Inf Sci. 27:1-7.
Dong, P., Loh, M., & Mondry, A. (2005). The “impact factor” revisited. Biomed Digit
Librar., 2:7.
Dunn, A. G., Gallego, B., & Coiera, E. (2012). Industry influenced evidence production in
collaborative research communities: a network analysis. J Clin Epidemiol., 65, 535-43.
Englander, K. (2014). Writing and Publishing Science Research Papers in English: A Global
Perspective. Chapter 2: Measuring the Impact of Articles, Journals and Nations.
SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-7714-9_2.
Eston, G. G. (2004). Judgment of scientific quality by impact factor is no substitute for
reading the paper (October 22, 2004). Available: www.bmj.com/cgi/letters/329/7471.
Garfield, E. (2006). The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. Journal of the
American Medical Association, 295(1), 90-93.
Gunn, A. J. (2004). How should we evaluate science? Available:
www.bruj.com/cgi/letters/329/7471.
Harnard, S. (2004). Enrich impact measures through open access analysis. Available:
www.bmj/cgi/letters/329/7471.
Harrington, H. J. (1997). The fallacy of universal best practices. The TQM Magazine, 9(1),
-75.
Hernon, P., & Schwartz, C. (2005). The case of the submitted paper. Library and Information
Science Research, 27(3), 277-280.
Holliday, E. B., Jagsi, R., Thomas, C. R., Jr, Wilson, L. D., & Fuller, C. D. (2014). Standing
on the shoulders of giants: results from the radiation oncology academic development
and mentorship assessment project (ROADMAP). Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys., 88, 18-
Hook, O. (1999). Scientific communications, history, electronic journals, and impact factors.
Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 31: 3-7.
Ibiam, O. E. & Agha, E. O. (2016). Unmasking the Challenges and Prospects Associated with
Building Strong Innovative Academic Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial University
in Nigeria. In: Joy Eyisi and Afam Icha-Ituma (Eds.) Building Entrepreneurial
Universities in a Developing Economy: Issues, Challenges and Prospects. Festschrift in
Honour of Distinguished Professor Oye Ibidapo-Obe. (Chapter Seventeen; Pp. 221-243).
Abakaliki: FUNAI Press.
Kalama, J., Etebu, C. E., Martha, C. A., & John, S. M. (2012). Legislator‟s Jumbo Pay, Cost
of Governance and the State of Education in Nigeria: Issues and Contradictions. Journal
of Educational and Social Research, 2(4), 73. Retrieved from
http://www.richtmann.org/journal/index.php/jesr/article/view/11913
Kear, R. & Colbert-Lewis, D. (2011). Citation searching and bibliometric measures resources
for ranking and tracking. Coll Res Libr News, 72, 470-4.
Lawal, B. Z. (2013). Exploration of Pragmatic Funding Sources in Funding Higher Education
in Nigeria. Journal of Education and Practice, 4(14), 10-13.
Levering, B., & Smeyers, B. (2009). Assessing the quality of educational research in the
Netherlands. In T. Besley (Ed.) Assessing the quality of educational research in Higher
Education (pp. 315-326). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Lillis, T., & Curry, M. J. (2010). Academic writing in a global context: The politics and
practices of publishing in English. London: Routledge.
Moya-Anegón, F. D., Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., Vargas-Quesada, B., Corera-Álvarez, E.,
Muñoz-Fernández, F. J., González-Molina, A. & Herrero-Solana, V. (2007). Coverage
analysis of Scopus: a journal metric approach. Scientometrics, 73:53–78.
Neuberger, J. & Counsell, C. (2002). Impact factors: Uses and abuses. European Journal of
Gastroenterology 14(3): 209-211
Okoye, M. O. (2010). The Use of Impact Factor in the Appraisal of Academic Librarians in
Nigeria. Library Philosophy and Practice. ISSN 1522-0222.
Omonijo, D. O., Uche, O. O. C., Chine, B. C., Anyaegbunam, M. C., George, T. O., &
Awosope C. O. (2015). The Proliferation of Hijacked Journals: Sensitizing Scholars in
Nigerian Higher Education System. European Journal of Social Sciences, 50(1), 107-
Oswald, A. J. (2009). A suggested method for the measurement of world-leading research
(illustrated with data on economics). Scientometrics, DOI 10.1007/s11192-009-0087-x.
Patsopoulos, N. A., Analatos, A. A., & Ioannidis, J. P. (2005). Relative citation impact of
various study designs in the health sciences. JAMA, 293, 2362-6.
Piwowar, H. A., Day, R. S., & Fridsma, D. B. (2007). Sharing detailed research data is
associated with increased citation rate. PLoS One. 2:e308.
Qiu, J. (2010). Publish or perish in China. Nature, 463, 142-143.
Ransby, B. (2003). Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic
Vision. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Repanovici, A. (2010). Measuring the visibility of the University's scientific production using
GoogleScholar, "Publish or Perish" software and Scientometrics. 1-14. Meeting: 155.
Science and Technology Libraries. World Library and Information Congress: 76th IFLA
General Conference and Assembly, 10-15 August 2010, Gothenburg, Sweden.
http://www.ifla.org/en/ifla76.
Reuters, T. (2011). http://thomsonreuters.com/products/ip-science/04_062/ssr1103443.pdf.
Romon, I. (2004). The impact of the small. Available: www.bmj.com/cgi/letters/329/7471.
Scully, C. & Lodge, H. (2005). Impact factors and their significance: verrated or misused?
British Dental Journal, 198(7), 391-393.
Seglen, P. O. (1997). Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating
research, BMJ: British Medical Journal, 314(7079), 498-502.
Sevinc, A. (2004). Manipulating impact factor: an unethical issue or an editor's choice? Swiss
Med Wkly, 134:410.
Shiwani, M. H. (2006). Quality of medical journals: Where do we stand? Journal of Pakistan
Medical Association, 56(12):570-2.
Smeyers, P. & Levering, B. (1998). Over de toekomst van het Nederlands als taal voor
wetenschappelijke publicaties in de pedagogiek [On the future of Dutch as a language for
scientific publication in educational sciences]. Comenius, 18, 77-88.
van Leeuwen, T. N., Moed, H. F., Tijssen, R. J., Visser, M. S., & van Raan, A. F. (2001).
Language biases in the coverage of the Science Citation Index and its consequences for
international comparisons of national research performance. Scientometrics, 51, 335-346.
Ware, M., & Mabe, W. (2009). The STM Report: An overview of scientific and scholarly
journal publishing. Oxford: International Association of Scientific, Technical and
Medical Publishers.
Weingart P. (2005). Impact of bibliometrics upon the science system: Inadvertent
consequences? Scientometrics, 62(1), 117-131.
West, J. D., Bergstrom, T. C., & Bergstrom, C. T. (2010). The Eigenfactor MetricsTM: a
network approach to assessing scholarly journals. Coll Res Libr., 71, 236-44.
Yang, K. & Meho, L. I. (2006). Citation analysis: a comparison of Google Scholar, Scopus,
and web of science. Proc Am Soc Inf Sci Technol., 43, 1-15.
