Does really affects the highly cited papers to the Journal Impact Factor

Abstract

The literature on the JIF is abundant due to its frequent use as an indicator in evaluation processes. In this collection of publications referring to it, observations about its limitations or inadequacy for the purposes to which it is applied are perhaps the most frequent section. One of the reasons for this criticism is the concentration of citations in a small fraction of the articles, which, according to the authors of these observations, undermines the value of the indicator insofar as it applies a measure based on averages to distributions that are highly skewed by this concentration of citations. This study analyses whether the JIF is indeed as affected by this distortion as has been pointed out, which would reduce its value as an indicator. Alternatively, the effect of Highly Cited Papers (HCP) may not disrupt the overall structure of journals in their respective categories when ranked according to this criterion. In this case, the value of this indicator, without going into other limitations that may affect it, would remain valid from this point of view in its application in evaluation exercises and, with it, other associated indicators such as quartiles. The study also analyses the behaviour of HCPs and whether their weight in the total journal citations has such a significant effect that, beyond a certain threshold, it would advise against using JIFs for this reason.