impact factor

Definition

A metric measuring how often articles in a journal are cited, which has somehow become the be-all-end-all of academic worth despite being easily gamed and fundamentally flawed. The academic equivalent of measuring a book's quality by its Amazon sales rank.

Example Usage

She only publishes in high impact factor journals, even though her groundbreaking work would reach more relevant readers in specialized publications.

Origin

Developed by Eugene Garfield in 1955 for the Science Citation Index

Fun Fact

The creator of the impact factor has publicly stated it's being misused for evaluating individual researchers, yet institutions continue to worship it anyway

Source: Academic publishing and bibliometrics terminology

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