Resource information
The Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR) receives its major funding from
governments, international development organizations,
private foundations and regional organizations. This study
analyzed journal citations of CIFOR publications, using the
International Statistical Institute (ISI) web of Science
database. CIFOR research and publications have an impact on
the scientific community? One way to answer this question is
by counting citations of CIFOR publications in academic
journals. Citation counting is commonly used 'to assess
the academic performance of individual researchers,
departments and research institutions when making decisions
about funding, hiring, promotion and tenure In the present
study we used the citation database of the ISI web of
Science. This includes all the major journals, and is the
most complete database for this purpose. It includes
citations of all types of publication, but only those
appearing in journal articles. Thus, a journal article
citing a CIFOR Occasional Paper (OP) is registered, while
the citation of a journal article in a CIFOR OP is not. An
important constraint on this exercise was the fact that
accumulating citations takes time. Thus, nine of the top ten
publications are from 1998 or earlier. In other words, it is
too early to assess the scientific impact of publications
from the last 4-5 years. The statistical work was carried
out in June-July 2004. The number of citations increases
weekly and this report shows the status as at mid- June 2004.
