Development and application of journal impact measures in the Dutch science system

This paper discusses development and application of journal impact indicators in a number of bibliometric studies commissioned by Dutch organizations and institutions, and conducted in our institute during the past five years. An outline is given of the research questions addressed in these studies and their policy context. For each study the appropriateness of the use of journal impact indicators produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) is evaluated. Alternative journal impact measures were developed which are shown to be more appropriate in the particular research and policy contexts than the ISI measures. These measures were considered to be highly useful by the users. The studies have revealed methodological flaws of the ISI journal impact factors.