I. Basic functions of SCI
SCI is a large-scale periodical literature retrieval reference book established by institute for scientific information on 1963. At present, there are online version, CD version and online version. SCI is a database containing sci-tech periodicals. The types of sci-tech periodicals collected mainly include: science, medicine, agriculture, technology and behavioral science. The journals included are called SCI source journals, and the papers published in this journal are called SCI articles. The original intention of establishing SCI is to establish a more novel and unique retrieval tool to meet the higher requirements of American scientists for scientific and technological information services due to the rapid expansion of literature after World War II. Starting from 1975, the Institute of Scientific Information published the periodical citation report (JCR) of the previous year based on SCI. According to the papers published in SCI source journals, this paper mainly counts the cited frequency and influencing factors of journals, namely annual index and half-life index. Therefore, SCI is a scientific information retrieval tool, a tool for objectively evaluating journals and papers, and one of the research methods of information science, bibliometrics and scientometrics (namely citation analysis). Journals and published papers are only statistical samples of SCI, which can only be regarded as one aspect of evaluation work and cannot represent all evaluation objects.
The most basic function of SCI is to help scientific and technical personnel obtain the most needed literature information. The purpose of establishing SCI is to find out the old, new and deep academic problems. Using SCI, we can learn the latest information about the development of science and technology, such as whether a theory has been confirmed? Is there any new progress in some work? Is a certain formulation valid? Is a concept innovative? These advantages of SCI are very helpful for scientific and technological workers to consult the latest literature, track the international academic frontier, establish scientific research projects and study specific topics.
Second, the main defects of SCI
Because SCI mainly focuses on the collection of basic scientific journals, the number of scientific papers collected by SCI only represents the basic scientific research level of a country or region to a certain extent, and cannot reflect its overall scientific and technological strength. Therefore, SCI's evaluation of science and technology is not comprehensive. The biggest advantage of SCI is the citation function, which can quickly know whether an author's paper has been cited by others and how many times it has been cited, so as to understand the development process of a certain discipline. Generally speaking, the higher the citation rate of a paper, the better the quality of the paper is considered. However, the citation rate of some high-value papers is not high, while the citation frequency of some articles criticized for their wrong views is quite high. In the history of science, Einstein's theory of relativity, Watson's and Crick's papers on the double helix structure of DNA are epoch-making great discoveries, but they failed to get a high citation rate because they were recognized as common sense shortly after publication. Some scientific papers are highly cited after publication, but after a period of time, they are found to be of little value or even wrong. Therefore, it is difficult to comprehensively evaluate the scientific achievements that have stood the long-term test only based on the citation rate, and even the wrong results may be evaluated.
In addition to academic bias (focusing on basic disciplines), SCI itself also has many problems such as language, region, politics and economy. Based on the priority of languages, the periodicals included in SCI periodical database are mainly English periodicals, and few periodicals in other languages are included. This makes the citation rate between English journals and papers higher, and the impact factor is higher, while the impact factor of journals in other languages is relatively low. Language is the most important embodiment of a national culture and a symbol of national self-confidence. It has absolute priority in all social activities (including scientific research), so we should establish the idea of language patriotism. In March 2006, French President Jacques Chirac walked out of the EU meeting to protest because a French businessman could not speak French. In the academic field, expressing the latest scientific research achievements in national languages should be the first priority. First, the paper should be published in domestic academic journals, and then translated into foreign languages for publication abroad. We must not arbitrarily think that the level of papers published by foreign magazines is higher than that of domestic magazines, or that the level of papers is determined by influencing factors. Some high-level China sci-tech journals are not included in sci due to language restrictions, which does not mean that these China sci-tech journals and published papers are of low level. Academician Wang Zhongcheng has made many important scientific achievements in neurosurgery research. Since the China Journal of Neurosurgery was founded 20 years ago, Academician Wang Zhongcheng has published 58 original papers (1), but the number of papers published in SCI source journals is less than 10, which does not affect his position as a model neurosurgeon in China and a world-class neurosurgeon. In recent ten years, Chinese Journal of Neurosurgery has given priority to publishing many high-level articles before being published in foreign magazines. This is a concrete manifestation of the priority of language rights and patriotism, which has promoted the development of neurosurgery in China. Whether scientific papers are published at home or abroad depends on whether it is conducive to the scientific and technological development and academic exchanges in China. Sending papers abroad can enhance communication with international counterparts, but it is not conducive to domestic academic exchanges. Some papers are just for fame. The overseas investment of a large number of excellent domestic papers will interrupt the information exchange between domestic counterparts, and even lead to repeated investment in some domestic scientific research projects, resulting in a huge waste of national scientific and technological resources (manpower and financial resources). A large number of excellent manuscripts will also lead to the decline of the quality of China sci-tech periodicals.
The geographical distribution of SCI source periodicals is obviously unbalanced, mainly concentrated in English sci-tech periodicals in the United States and English-speaking areas. The proportion of the first three countries is about 40% in the United States, 20% in the United Kingdom and 0/0% in the Netherlands. Some high-level sci-tech periodicals were not selected because of political or linguistic factors in the publishing place, which is not completely proportional to the scientific and technological level and comprehensive strength of various countries. As SCI is a periodical database, the number of periodicals included in SCI is limited. In 2004, SCI included 63,965,438+0 journals, of which medical journals accounted for about 30%, and 70 journals were published in China (23 in Chinese and 47 in English). In 2004, there were *** 1608 statistical source journals of scientific papers in China (China Scientific Papers and Citations Database), among which medical journals accounted for about 27%. As there are few journals in China included in SCI, which directly leads to less reports on China scholars, it is difficult to use SCI as an evaluation standard to cover the scientific research work and achievements of most China scholars. Taking SCI as a reference, encouraging some scientific and technological personnel to sprint to the highest level in the world and evaluating the scientific research achievements of scientific and technological personnel are two interrelated and different aspects. Confusing the difference between them may lead to the abuse of SCI standards, which may not fully mobilize the enthusiasm of scientific and technological personnel, but may lead to the loss of scientific research confidence of the group. Due to geographical distribution and language barriers, some influential scientific papers in China have not been included in SCI or can not get high citation rate in SCI measurement, which leads to inaccurate evaluation of Chinese scholars by SCI standards. It is very wrong to represent the academic level of researchers only by the number of SCI papers and the numerical value of journal impact factors. The academic influence of a paper should be measured by the frequency of citation. At present, there are many kinds of manual periodical literature retrieval tools at home and abroad, and SCI is only one of them. The domestic databases related to medicine mainly include: China Science Citation Database (CSCD) and China Science Papers and Citations Database (CSTPCD). Different databases cannot be compared, and the role of SCI must not be mythical.
Third, correctly understand the influencing factors.
Metrological indicators for evaluating sci-tech periodicals mainly include: total cited frequency, impact factors, other cited rates, and the number of cited periodicals, namely, annual index, diffusion factors, discipline diffusion index, discipline impact index, cited half-life, etc. The impact factor is a statistical index to evaluate periodicals with periodical citation reports. Sorting statistical source journals according to the value of impact factors can analyze the development and changes of scientific research from a macro perspective, and can also be used as a reference for authors to choose journals when submitting manuscripts. The impact factor refers to the ratio of the total number of cited papers published in the first two years of the third year to the total number of citable papers published in the same period. Every year, SCI publishes the Journal Citation Report of last year's SCI journals, in which a number of statistical indicators for evaluating journals, such as total cited frequency and impact factors, are counted to quantitatively evaluate a sci-tech journal, and the impact factor is only one of the statistical measurement indicators. The main factors that determine the value of influencing factors are: time, number of database journals, statistical differences, differences in the nature of disciplines, types of papers and references (2) and so on. However, in order to improve their own influence factors, individual academic journals in China require authors to quote a large number of their own articles and journals, or even delete references from peer journals. The high self-citation rate of China periodicals has become an open secret in domestic academic circles. The reasonable self-citation rate of excellent scientific journals should be below 15%, and the self-citation rate of Chinese Journal of Neurosurgery in 2004 was 7%. Therefore, the Chinese Medical Association advocates the use of "the influence factor of other citation" (that is, the influence factor × the rate of other citation) (3) to eliminate the problem of incorrect high self-citation rate.
Fourth, establish a correct view of academic evaluation
The author feels strongly: What are the functions of scientific research and academic papers? Who is it for? Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and the productivity of medical papers in China is reflected in the citation of papers, which is accepted by the majority of medical staff and applied to clinic. If you use SCI to evaluate an article, you must also examine the citation rate of the article, not the influencing factors. When publishing articles in foreign magazines, we must consider the situation that "foreigners don't quote, but China people don't read". The academic evaluation of a scientific research article, first, depends on whether it is published in the mainstream magazine of this major (both at home and abroad); Second, it depends on how this article is quoted after publication (you can't quote it yourself). The most fundamental thing is to serve the country and the people, put national interests first, pursue scientific truth, use scientific knowledge to change poverty and backwardness in China, benefit the people, realize a well-off society, and ultimately benefit mankind, instead of publishing a few articles casually and winning several prizes. This is the responsibility and mission of Chinese scientists, and it is the most important evaluation index that really contributes to scientific development and social progress.
References:
1. Chen Yuping, Liu Yanhong. Analysis on the distribution of articles published in Chinese Journal of Neurosurgery in 2 1 year. China Journal of Neurosurgery, February 20051:706-708.
2. Xiao Shaowen. Citation of Chinese references and its significance. China Journal of Neurosurgery, February, 20051:449.
3. Mei Ping, Du Yuhuan, You Suning, etc. Other cited factors: a more objective index to evaluate the quality of medical journals. Research on China Sci-tech Journals, 2003, 14: 624-626.