[Taxacom] Fwd: Zootaxa taken off of JCR

Stephen Thorpe stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz
Mon Jul 6 17:15:35 CDT 2020 

 
Mike Ivie said "Carlos, this issue has nothing to do with science or logic, it is purely the politics of academic advancement of scientists’ careers.  We have to support that, no matter how unscientific or illogical the mechanism (or even inappropriate) is."
So, let me see if I understand this properly. One journal out of a great many loses IF status, and this somehow threatens the academic advancement of scientists’ (taxonomists) careers? The only thing which made Zootaxa "special" was that its editorial standards are set low to allow rapid publication of articles, some of which wouldn't make it through the review process in other journals, and yet authors were gaining citation credits nonetheless, regardless of whatever garbage they churned out! Don't get me wrong, some Zootaxa articles are very good indeed, but there are plenty of other journals to choose from. Of course many Zootaxa authors were gaming the system for citations, but probably no more so than in other journals, including the high IF ones. So, in a way, it is somewhat unfair to pick on Zootaxa in that regard. I suspect it has more to do with academia's decreasing disregard for taxonomy as a (commercially viable) science, and less to do with gaming the citation system.
Stephen    On Tuesday, 7 July 2020, 04:00:09 am NZST, Carlos Alberto Martínez Muñoz via Taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:  
 
 Dear Michael,
"...this issue has nothing to do with science or logic, it is purely the
politics of academic advancement of scientists’ careers." I wholeheartedly
agree.
"We have to support that...". Definitely not.

Before I continue, I will briefly outline the logical fallacy behind the
IF.
Please read: "Fallacy of Affirming the Consequent (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent)"

Summarized:
True conditional statement:
• If P then Q
Invalidly concluding its converse:
• Q
• Therefore P

Tailored to the JIF:
True conditional statement:
• If it has high quality (P) then it has high repercussion (Q)
Invalidly concluding its converse:
• It has high repercussion (Q)
• Therefore it has high quality (P)

Building up a scientific career on a logical fallacy may not seem a paradox
to many but it is to me. One can be a scientist or not, one has to choose
to be coherent or not. I do not see anything in between. This JIF issue is
inherently incoherent and if I cannot have an academic career because I do
not bow down to such incoherence, then so be it. Personally, I will look
down to anyone trying to evaluate my research based on the JIF of the
journals I have published in. I would expect that those persons do not call
themselves scientists, because they would not be acting like scientists.
Moreover, like many colleagues here, I am tired of this derogatory metric,
to which authors' work doesn't matter, reviewers' work doesn't matter, just
journal names matter. I cannot understand how the same scientists that
think they can convince Clarivate Analytics to give back the JIF to Zootaxa
also think that they cannot elaborate why this metric should not be used
and convince their own institutions. Or maybe I can. It may well be that
many "scientists" are willing to profit from the JIF for the "academic
advancement of scientists’ careers", regardless of the JIF being a fallacy.
I hope that they can look at the mirror and see themselves for what they
truly are.

Kind regards,
Carlos

Carlos A. Martínez Muñoz
Zoological Museum, Biodiversity Unit
FI-20014 University of Turku
Finland
Myriatrix <http://myriatrix.myspecies.info/>
ResearchGate profile
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Martinez-Munoz>
Myriapod Morphology and Evolution
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/205802113162102/>




El lun., 6 jul. 2020 a las 16:45, Alfredo Vizzini (<alfredo.vizzini at unito.it>)
escribió:

> ... but we must not resign ourselves and fight against this stupid
> evaluation system
>
> Best
> Alfredo Vizzini
>
>
> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alfredo_Vizzini
>
>
>                    /--- Phylogeny
>                /---+
>                |  \---- of unknown
>          /-----+
>          |    \----- Fungal
>        --+
>          \------------- Diversity
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Il giorno lun 6 lug 2020 alle ore 16:19 Ivie, Michael via Taxacom <
> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> ha scritto:
>
>> Carlos, this issue has nothing to do with science or logic, it is purely
>> the politics of academic advancement of scientists’ careers.  We have to
>> support that, no matter how unscientific or illogical the mechanism (or
>> even inappropriate) is.  I agree with your points, but not your conclusion.
>> Mike
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________
>> Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.
>>
>> NOTE: two addresses with different Zip Codes depending on carriers
>>
>> US Post Office Address:
>> Montana Entomology Collection
>> Marsh Labs, Room 50
>> PO Box 173145
>> Montana State University
>> Bozeman, MT 59717
>> USA
>>
>> UPS, FedEx, DHL Address:
>> Montana Entomology Collection
>> Marsh Labs, Room 50
>> 1911 West Lincoln Street
>> Montana State University
>> Bozeman, MT 59718
>> USA
>>
>> (406) 994-4610 (voice)
>> (406) 994-6029 (FAX)
>> mivie at montana.edu
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> on behalf of Carlos
>> Alberto Martínez Muñoz via Taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>> Sent: Monday, July 6, 2020 7:14 AM
>> To: Taxa com <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Fwd: Zootaxa taken off of JCR
>>
>> Dear Taxacomers,
>> I don't care about the JIF or about Zootaxa not getting it anymore. The
>> JIF
>> is unscientific as it is based on a logical fallacy. By not getting it,
>> Zootaxa has been released from its chains, even if unwillingly. All the
>> whining for having those chains back is unscientific as well, and it
>> evidences how poorly prepared our community is in some topics of logic and
>> scientific methodology. Moreover, with so many free-to-publish and
>> free-to-read platinum open access journals out there, every page published
>> in a paywalled journal is a disservice to Taxonomy. This is 2020. We have
>> the means to be better and to do better.
>> Beyond that, I will not sign an "I support Zootaxa" letter but I would
>> sign a neutral statement such as "We have reviewed for Zootaxa and we
>> state
>> that no misconduct related to journal self-citations has been suggested or
>> demanded from us...". I have never published in Zootaxa, while I have
>> written three manuscript reviews (about 25 pages) within the last six
>> months. So, if you think that a "no journal self-citation misconduct"
>> neutral statement signed by reviewers can be of any use in getting Zootaxa
>> back to the IF fallacy, you can count with my signature.
>> Kind regards,
>> Carlos
>>
>> Carlos A. Martínez Muñoz
>> Zoological Museum, Biodiversity Unit
>> FI-20014 University of Turku
>> Finland
>> Myriatrix <http://myriatrix.myspecies.info/>
>> ResearchGate profile
>> <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Martinez-Munoz>
>> Myriapod Morphology and Evolution
>> <https://www.facebook.com/groups/205802113162102/>
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