Interesting item looking at the use (and abuse) of impact factors in academic journals (impact factors measure the importance of a journal through metrics such as citations and are used when making purchasing decisions). As Marc Meola notes, some practices are underhanded, such as "blatantly asking authors to cite more studies the journal has already published to limiting citations to outside journals." But also, as the article notes, "If you look at journals that have a high impact factor, they tend to be trendy... It's hard to get into them if you're ahead of the curve."
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