The Guardian has published an article decrying the current flawed system of measuring scientific impact. 

The article, entitled How journals like Nature, Cell and Science are damaging science, describes the stranglehold that popular high impact factor journals have on the scientific community. 

The author, Randy Schekman, winner of the 2013 Nobel prize for medicine, condemns the tendency of many high impact factor journals to publish articles which are likely to cause controversy and attract attention, rather than selecting articles purely on their scientific merit.  He criticizes the current system that rewards scientists for publishing in these journals, even though a journal’s  impact factor is not an accurate way of measuring the quality of individual papers.

Schekman concludes with the hope that the new wave of open access journals will help to alleviate this situation and create a more level playing field.

The Guardian, Monday 9 December 2013