In PLoS ONE ist folgender interessanter Artikel zu finden: A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures (Bollen J, Van de Sompel H, Hagberg A, Chute R, 2009 A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures. PLoS ONE 4(6): e6022. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006022). Die Autoren diskutieren, wie man die Wirkung von wissenschaftlichen Artikeln messen kann. Sie kommen zu dem Schluß:

Our results indicate that the notion of scientific impact is a multi-dimensional construct that can not be adequately measured by any single indicator, although some measures are more suitable than others. The commonly used citation Impact Factor is not positioned at the core of this construct, but at its periphery, and should thus be used with caution.