Worthless metrics.
Let me introduce Impact Factor Services for International Journals (I.F.S.I.J), the newest addition to my list of misleading metrics companies. The firm’s mission is to help low-quality and predatory journals appear legitimate and successful, even when they are worthless and dangerous. It contrives and licenses nine different types of “factors” to journal publishers.
The company makes available these discrete metrics:
Impact Factor (IF)
Journal Total Quality Factor (JTQF)
Journal Regularity Factor (JRF)
Journal Indexing Factor (JIF)
Journal Popularity Factor (JPF)
Journal Technical Quality Factor (JTQF)
Journal Citation Factor (JCFE)
Journal Editorial Quality Factor (JEQF) Journal Originality Factor (JOF)
A journal can license its impact factor for forty dollars per year. The other metrics are also available individually, or you can purchase the entire package of all the metrics for ₹2000 per year (the price is not given in dollars).
According to the service’s “Contact” page, it’s based in Pune, Maharashtra, India and operated by Mr. P.R. Choubey, M.Tech, Electrical Power System.
As a condition of using the service. Mr. Choubey tells his customers, “Note: once the journal is indexed it is mandatory to publish IFSIJ logo on journal website.”
An example of a journal that uses these metrics is Annals of Phytomedicine, and it displays the fake values prominently:
Annals of misrepresentation.
In my opinion, any journal that showcases one or more of Mr. Choubey’s bogus “factors” is a journal that researchers should avoid.
Many open-access journals, especially those based in South Asia, now use fake metrics to attract article submissions and the money that follows.
Don’t submit your work to any journal that advertises a fake impact factor or any other made-up metric.
Hat tip: Shirley Ainsworth
