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Lies, damned lies… and citation metrics
  1. Matthew C Kiernan
  1. Correspondence to Professor Matthew C Kiernan, Neuroscience Research Australia and University of New South Wales, Barker Street, Randwick, Sydney NSW 2031, Australia; M.kiernan{at}unsw.edu.au

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Medical publishing metrics and financial yields

In ‘Chapters from My Autobiography’ published in 1906, Mark Twain noted that ‘figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics’.1 Apparently no mention of the phrase could be found in the Disreali archives, but regardless of attribution, the phrase found resonance at the time and thereafter, and seems particularly relevant in the ever changing world of medical publications and the calculation of their metrics.

To understand the basis of publication metrics and value more generally, perhaps it would be best to start by considering why clinicians seek to publish their …

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Footnotes

  • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.