It is said that "people all over the world are downloading and reading TCG (the Canadian Geographer)". That may mean journal relevance?
Wrong. Downloaded articles are not used often. The 10-yr average TCG impact factor is 0.602. The best year was 2006 at 0.82. In 2011 it is 0.56!
The Canadian Geographer journal has a "very high (and growing) library access rate". That may mean journal interest?
Wrong. Publishers bundle the journals in themes. Libraries buy the package. Low quality journals ride on the coat tails!
"The issue of impact factor is usually ignored unless it is high."
Wrong. Impact factor ranks a journal among its peers! A low impact factor in geography means low relevance in the group!
"Urge you to ... cite the journal. We are all the Canadian Geographer."
Wrong. Unnecessarily citing the journal by coercion leads to citation inflation and amounts to academic dishonesty!
Notes:
Journal impact factor - Defined as A/B, where A = current year citations to peer reviewed articles from past two years, B = total number of peer reviewed articles published by the journal in the past two years.
Schuurman, N. (2012). The Canadian Geographer, Editorial, 56(3), p.295.
Science (2012). Coercive citation in academic publishing, 335(6068), p.542-543.
Thoughts? Share your comments below.
