1 Why Are You Reading This Book? Goodhart’s law “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” —Marilyn Strathern This chapter is asking all the stakeholders with an interest in scholarly met- rics (librarians, administrators and department chairs, and researchers) to stop and consider why they are interested in this topic and what they hope to gain from understanding journal ranking and other scholarly metrics. These are complex, but imperfect measurements. When used appropriately, metrics can help users make informed decisions or describe work accom- plishments. When metrics are used to answer questions they were never designed to answer they become meaningless, or worse become an onerous burden. LIBRARIANS Don’t push your agenda. Provide a service don’t create problems. When we initially investigated how libraries might provide research evaluation services, we noticed two groups emerging from the literature. One group believed libraries should assist with bibliometric services because it was a natural expansion of library services, while the other group focused on the strategic benefits of providing such services. They argued that if libraries provide scholarly metrics services, they would dem- onstrate their worth and reestablish their value to administrators who increasingly rely on metrics. However, coupled with the voices warning
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