Institute of Advanced Social Studies (IESA-CSIC)

A team from the United States has used data from health studies to analyze the extent to which prestigious journals capture or ignore science considered influential. Their findings indicate that most of the most cited articles—thus considered most influential—are published in journals not ranked among the most prestigious. According to the study, approximately half of all researchers never publish in a journal with an impact factor above 15, which, according to certain evaluation systems, could exclude them from opportunities. However, overall, traditional journal-based measures may only recognize between 10% and 20% of influential work. The results are published in Plos Biology.