Scripta Medica (Jan 2019)
Science metrics systems in biomedical sciences: Current trends
Abstract
The publication of scientific research is principally information published in scientific journals and they are cornerstone of knowledge dissemination, as well as an essential criterion for academic and scientific evaluation, recruiting funds and career progression. However, it is very difficult to apply right measures and scientific criteria which can objectively assess scientific research. For many years there has been a great interest in scientific ranking and evaluation of scientific journals, but also of scientific contribution of scientists. It is generally accepted that the IF (WoS) and the total number of citations of articles published in the journal, are the most relevant parameters of the journal's significance. However, the scientific significance of a scientist is much more complicated to evaluate and the value of their scientific production cannot be directly reflected by the importance of the journals in which their articles are published. The majority of existing science metric systems, which evaluate the achievement of scientists are focused solely on the number of citations of their articles. Based on a long term of academic experience, the author describes and evaluates the most known scientific databases which are used in biomedical sciences. Also, the author proposes Z-score as a new science metric system which takes into account the current IF (WoS) and total number of citations of the journal in which the article is published, as well as author's contribution to the scientific article. In that way, proposed criteria greatly remedy major discrepancies in evaluating scientific production of individual authors and institutions.
