RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 A simple proposal for the publication of journal citation distributions JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 062109 DO 10.1101/062109 A1 Vincent Larivière A1 Véronique Kiermer A1 Catriona J. MacCallum A1 Marcia McNutt A1 Mark Patterson A1 Bernd Pulverer A1 Sowmya Swaminathan A1 Stuart Taylor A1 Stephen Curry YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/05/062109.abstract AB Although the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is widely acknowledged to be a poor indicator of the quality of individual papers, it is used routinely to evaluate research and researchers. Here, we present a simple method for generating the citation distributions that underlie JIFs. Application of this straightforward protocol reveals the full extent of the skew of distributions and variation in citations received by published papers that is characteristic of all scientific journals. Although there are differences among journals across the spectrum of JIFs, the citation distributions overlap extensively, demonstrating that the citation performance of individual papers cannot be inferred from the JIF. We propose that this methodology be adopted by all journals as a move to greater transparency, one that should help to refocus attention on individual pieces of work and counter the inappropriate usage of JIFs during the process of research assessment.