Evolving impact metrics in 2022
“One size does not fit all when we talk of research impact or excellence. Impact is a complex, subtle, diffuse and many-layered effect that accumulates through time. Yet we focus so much on a simple and blunt measure of a journal’s reputation with significant unintended consequences."
— Ziyad Marar (he/him), president of global publishing
What do we mean by research metrics?
Industry-wide methods to measure and celebrate research success rely on counting citations, which fails to capture how research influences and informs policy, practice, and the public. These measures do little to help social and behavioral sciences advocacy groups to demonstrate to policymakers that these disciplines need strong funding. In addition, citations are often slower to accrue in the social and behavioral sciences despite their potential incredible societal benefit. Sage believes we must improve the relied-upon metrics of research impact. To formalize our support of principles like these, in 2022 we signed onto the Declaration on Research Assessment, or DORA, which includes recognizing a variety of metrics, encouraging responsible authorship practices, reducing constraints on reference lists, and more.
Marar's 2022 paper “On Measuring Social Science Impact,” in the journal Organizational Studies, articulates why it is worth tackling the challenge of improving impact metrics. We invited scholars to reflect on his ideas on Social Science Space, which drew essays from psychologist and autism researcher Sue Fletcher-Watson, management professor Anne-Wil Harzing, political scientist Laura Rovelli, data scientist Mike Taylor, the staff of the Humane Metrics Initiative, and Ron Kassimir, senior adviser to the Columbia World Projects. These pieces have in aggregate been read 13,000 times, and an e-book is planned around the series.
What about Journal Impact Factor?
In our 2022 Journal Impact Factor (JIF) report, nine Sage journals were first within the Social Science Citation Index categories, and 36 journals were in the top 25 percent of the Science Citation Index category. Overall, 77 Sage journals received a top 10 category rank with six journals receiving their first impact factor. However, Sage believes that the standard two-year period used to measure JIF is just one—limited—factor indicating impact. For the fourth year, in 2022 Sage emphasized five-year Journal Impact Factors, which we believe provide a longer-term and more balanced picture than shorter windows, particularly in SBS.
Promoting an even longer time frame, we awarded the authors of three papers with our "10-Year impact award,” acknowledging the authors of the most-cited papers published in Sage Journals one decade earlier.