ABC | Volume 111, Nº3, September 2018

Viewpoint Santos et al For a model of self-citation governance in ABC Arq Bras Cardiol. 2018; 111(3):423-426 Figure 1 – Incidence rate ratio (IRR) of self-citations during the period from 2000 to 2016. Note: results are presented from the year 2001 on, since the year 2000 was used as the starting point of the rolling window regression. 1.04 1.02 1 .98 2001m7 2004m7 2007m7 2010m7 2013m7 2016m7 Six-month rolling window Incidence rate ratio by the Ministry of Education, adopts a set of procedures to classify the quality of intellectual production of (professional and academic) Master’s degree and doctoral programs, named “Qualis classification”. For the same journal, Qualis varies according to the subject area. Qualis classification criteria include the impact factor (or more precisely, the cutoff point) that defines each category, 5 which is available at Sucupira platform. 6 ABC is indexed according to formal parameters of assessment of scientific journals, such as its format, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), periodicity and main scientific content, presence of a qualified editorial board, peer reviews, and conformity with the norms of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), formerly Vancouver group. The journal is also indexed in the National Library of Medicine, Pub Med/Medline, ISI, and SciELO, Lilacs databases, among others. 5,7 The impact factor of ABC was calculated for the first time by the Journal of Citation Report (Thomson Reuters) in 2010, with a result of 1.315. Since then, values of this bibliometric index, documented by the Web of Science database (ISI) confirmed scientific relevance as well as the scope of the studies conducted in Brazil and of international studies published in ABC. These classifications place ABC at the same level of approximately 30% of international journals in cardiology indexed in the ISI database. 2 Strategies that may increase the impact factor include the improvement of publication and internationalization criteria of the journal. This has been performed in non-English-speaking countries, by publishing, for example, bilingual editions. Similar strategies have been used in the United States, Mexico and South Korea. 8 Since its inception in scientific field, Thomson Reuters has developed citation indexes, and compilation of statistical reports, not only in terms of volume of publication but also of the frequency of citations. This used to be done by the Science Citation Index (SCI) 5 until 1975 and, since then, this process has been continued by Thomson Reuters by means of JCR, as part of the SCI and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). 10 JCR provides quantitative tools for classification, assessment, classification and comparison of journals. 9 The impact factor allows comparisons between different journals year by year. 10 It’s reasonable that the editors of scientific journals strive to improve the scientific quality of the articles to be published, which is achieved, among others, by increasing the number of articles received, by a rigorous selection process and training of reviewers. Not rarely, the prestige and even the survival of a journal depends on the maintenance or, even better, improvement of the impact factor. 11 Nonetheless, the use of the impact factor has been a matter of controversy in scientific and academic communities. The instrument has been considered inadequate, 12 of low credibility, 6 a source of distraction, 13 a controversial stimulus, 14 a questionable metrics 15 to be extinguished 16 or, at least, a debatable subject. 13 Also, assessing the scientific quality of the articles in a two-year period may be considered arbitrary. 17 Despite the criticisms, the impact factor has been used as a bibliometric indicator, i.e., as a discriminating parameter of the relevance of a publication for the scientific community. 12-18 The use of an easy-to-understand bibliometric indicator represents a valuable contribution, especially considering the increase in the number of electronic journals and online journal access. 10-17] However, governance instruments capable of auditing the temporal pattern of self-citation rate and identifying sudden or unexpected increments in the impact factor, possibly associated with inappropriate self-referencing should be developed. 425