Articlehybrid2024

Role of low‐impact‐factor journals in conservation implementation

Jonathan J. Choi · Leo Chan Gaskins · Joseph P. Morton · Julia A. Bingham · Ashley M. Blawas · Christine D. Hayes +3 more

20 citations0/0 files storedConservation Biology

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scientometrics and bibliometrics research Publishing and Scholarly Communication Conservation, Ecology, Wildlife Education

Abstract

Academic review, promotion, and tenure processes place a premium on frequent publication in high-impact factor (IF) journals. However, conservation often relies on species-specific information that is unlikely to have the broad appeal needed for high-IF journals. Instead, this information is often distributed in low-IF, taxa- and region-specific journals. This suggests a potential mismatch between the incentives for academic researchers and the scientific needs of conservation implementation. To explore this mismatch, we looked at federal implementation of the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA), which requires the use of the "best available science" to list a species as endangered or threatened and thus receive powerful legal protections. In assessing the relationship between academic sources of this "best available science" and ESA implementation, we looked at the 13,292 sources (e.g., academic journals, books, reports, regulations, personal communications, etc.) cited by the second Obama administration (2012-2016) across all ESA listings. We compared the IFs of all 785 journals that published peer-reviewed papers cited in these listings against their citation frequency in ESA listings to determine whether a journal's IF varied in proportion with its contribution to federal conservation. Most of the peer-reviewed academic articles referenced in ESA listings came from low-IF or no-IF journals that tended to focus on specific taxa or regions. Although we support continued attention to cutting-edge, multidisciplinary science for its ability to chart new pathways and paradigms, our findings stress the need to value and fund the taxa- and region-specific science that underpins actionable conservation laws.

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References

2019Use of the Journal Impact Factor in academic review, promotion, and tenure evaluations 2012Intended and unintended consequences of a publish‐or‐perish culture: A worldwide survey 2018The evaluation of scholarship in academic promotion and tenure processes: Past, present, and future 2019The Journal Impact Factor: A Brief History, Critique, and Discussion of Adverse Effects 2020Why we publish where we do: Faculty publishing values and their relationship to review, promotion and tenure expectations 2015The Altmetric Score: A New Measure for Article-Level Dissemination and Impact 2016Beat it, impact factor! Publishing elite turns against controversial metric 2019How significant are the public dimensions of faculty work in review, promotion and tenure documents?

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2025Beyond metrics: shifting measures of research impact from citations and journal rankings to meaningful impacts on society 2025Language barriers in conservation science citation networks

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