Over-optimization of academic publishing metrics: observing Goodhart's Law in action.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart's Law, according to which, "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

Results

In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefu

SUBMITTER: Fire M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6541803 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature