[Neutralizing science citation index as an academic evaluation system]

Research papers are published in thousands of scientific journals every year in the world. The quality of these papers has to be evaluated to determine their accuracy and contribution to their research fields. Science citation index (SCI) is a citation-based metric used to rank scientific journals. The importation of SCI from abroad contributed much both to encourage Chinese scientific community to collaborate with scientists all over the world, and the development of science and technology at home. However, there have been numerous criticisms over the years of the misuse of SCI, especially impact factor, as a measure of the quality of individual research papers. This review article analyzes the history and current situation of using SCI to evaluate scientific papers, discusses how to objectively consider SCI and the other new practices to evaluate research papers. It is also suggested in the present article that the impact of domestic scientific journals on the world should be improved, and that more attention should be paid to the quality of the research papers to improve the academic evaluation system and the development of science and technology in our country.