How should a scholar's research be assessed for tenure and promotion? What metrics and factors should be used when determining the overall impact of a scholar's work?
These are hotly debated questions in academia at the moment. Since the 1950s, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) has been relied on heavily for evaluating the strength of a faculty member's scholarship. However, there are major problems with that method. Over the last decade or more, many critiques of the use of the JIF for determining tenure and promotion decisions have been published. They have revealed the inherent problems involved in using a metric designed to measure the impact of a journal to measure the impact of a scholar's work who publishes in that journal. Suggestions have been made for improving research assessment and two major declarations have received broad support from the scholarly community around the world.
Below you will find Major Statements on Research Assessment, a list of relevant Readings on Scholarly Impact Metrics, and some Additional Resources.