The Cost of Prestige: Bibliodiversity and the Impact Factor Brand

Little attention has been devoted to whether the Impact Factor (IF) can be considered a responsible metric through the lens of bibliodiversity. This talk will critically engage with this question and how the IF perpetuates biases and prejudices rooted in coloniality. To do so, it will present the results of a study that measured the following variables of IF journals included in the 2021 Journal Citation Reports: publishing models (hybrid, Open Access with or without fees, subscription), world regions, language(s) of publication, subject categories, publishers, and the prices of article processing charges (APC) if any. The results of this study show that the quest for prestige or perceived quality through the IF brand poses serious threats to bibliodiversity and reinforces power asymmetries within scholarly communications. The IF brand can indeed hardly be considered a responsible metric insofar as it perpetuates publishing concentration, favors publishing outlets of the Global North while maintaining its artificial image of mega producer of scholarly content, does not promote linguistic diversity, and de-incentivizes fair and equitable open access by entrenching fee-based OA delivery options with rather high APCs. The talk will conclude with questions and recommendations regarding the responsibilities of academics in sustaining the many imbalanced structures and systems underlying the IF brand.