Access

Correspondence

Nature 446, 725 (12 April 2007) | doi:10.1038/446725b; Published online 11 April 2007

Reliance on bibliometric databases can let you down

Brian Haynes1

  1. The Combustion Institute, 5001 Baum Boulevard, Suite 635, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-1851, USA

Publications not indexed in listings such as the ISI Web of Science are, these days, considered of questionable merit. In more collegial times, research performance not adequately represented by application of such standardized metrics could be evaluated fairly — for example, with allowances for lack of coverage of some disciplines, for citation behaviour in different disciplines, and for the existence of prestigious alternative forums.