[Taxacom] Fwd: Taxonomic citations

[Frank.Krell at dmns.org]

"But maybe I've been outside the academic mainstream for too long: is
there a legitimate use for such indices?"

Barely - but they are used all the time, particularly in the Old World.

Citation counts for particular authors are to some extent legitimate since they show what attention an author receives (not necessarily what quality the author produces).

Journal Impact Factors are journal-based indicators and cannot be used for evaluating authors (but they are!). It is the Impact Factor that only considers the citations of the two previous years - thus almost completely missing taxonomic impact anyway.

Frank

Dr Frank T. Krell 
Curator of Entomology 
Commissioner, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
Chair, ICZN ZooBank Committee
Department of Zoology 
Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
2001 Colorado Boulevard 
Denver, CO 80205-5798 USA 
Frank.Krell at dmns.org 
Phone: (+1) (303) 370-8244 
Fax: (+1) (303) 331-6492 
http://www.dmns.org/main/en/General/Science/ScientificExperts/Biographies/krellFrank.htm