Writing in the Sept. 14, 1998, issue of The Scientist ("The Under-reporting of Research Impact," 12[18]:9), Ronald N. Kostoff outlines steps to better utilize the Science Citation Index® (SCI) to track research impact. Kostoff states that the cooperation of scientific journals would be needed to ensure the completeness and adequacy of reference lists, as well as to assess whether bibliographies are properly prioritized with respect to the relative importance of each reference. I believe this is unlikely to occur for a variety of reasons, including:
In summary, while I do agree that impact factors are a good choice as a quantifiable metric for research assessment, it is my opinion that using an upgraded version of the SCI as a means to measure research impact through enhanced referencing of journals, faces at best an uphill battle.
