THE 'IMPACT FACTOR' AND MATHEMATICIANS

Published in THE NEWS International, 19th July 2000

As if it was not bad enough that the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST) had produced a report cataloging Pakistani scientists 'Impact Factor' rating them across the board without regard to the nature of their subject, now it is proposing passing an ordinance to use this so-called Impact Factor of scientists in awarding funds for research projects.

The particular nature and special characteristics of each branch of science have been completely ignored in devising the Rs15.7 billion National Scientific and Technological Research and Development Fund for encouraging scientific research in the country.

The policy will have devastating effects on science in general and on mathematics, especially pure mathematics, in particular. There will be hardly any honest mathematical researcher who will meet the requirements for the research project to receive money. This is because the nature of mathematics is very different from the other branches of sciences.

The state of mathematics in Pakistan is already deplorable. It is deteriorating due to ignorance, negligence, and misinformation about it. The PCST and other similar organizations have shown no concern so far. Instead, the PCST has come out with a damaging "catalogue" entitled Leading Scientists of Pakistan.

Never in the world one has seen a science council devising a national formula, which the PCST calls the 'Impact Factor', by which all the scientists of the country are linearly rated across the board - ignoring difference in nature of each branch of science. It requires only common sense and honesty to out rightly reject such a formula. If one were to send this formula to well-known mathematicians abroad and seek their opinion, the result would be the same.

The use of management-type figures which claim to enable comparisons to be made, can be utterly misleading. Figures are only as good as the premises on which the figures are based and often, the premises of many widely-touted management figures are seriously flawed. The use of Philadelphia's Institute of Scientific Information's SCI Journal Citation Reports by PCST is one such example. The only real criterion of an individual is quality and that does not admit of simple numerical assessment.

The American Mathematical Society (http//www.ams.org/mrlookup) or Zentralblatt fur Mathematik consider some 1500 journals which publish around 47000 research papers out of 3,525 branches of mathematics per year. If we classify, on the basis of this internationally accepted list of mathematics journals, the journals listed in the SCI Journal Citation Reports by PCST, the rating of the PCST is completely upside down. This shows that PCST's observations are incorrect.

In last year's PCST Catalogue of PCST, only 27 mathematicians from universities and scientific organizations are mentioned whereas there are about 233 mathematicians in the universities alone. This means that the majority of mathematicians have simply rejected the so-called Impact Factor.

The PCST's report would be a disaster for mathematics, which needs every encouragement it can get in Pakistan. Original research papers in mathematics are often cited only infrequently in their early years, and develop their impact slowly, over many years, as their ideas are gradually understood and developed by other mathematicians and by users of mathematics. This is not because mathematicians are less efficient than their scientific colleagues: it simply reflects the different nature and methodology of the subject, depending on a very high level of abstraction and on generally solitary, rather than team-led, progress.

Many young mathematicians are trying to develop research careers in difficult circumstances. Research mathematicians in non-research environments, including those at non-doctoral institutions, need support. We should help devise support systems to make small-college positions compatible with research. Finding ways to support an active research population in Pakistan has become increasingly difficult in an era of globalization of the world economy, where competition is fierce and international. We have to react positively to the challenges with constructive proposals to improve research and teaching of mathematics at all levels throughout Pakistan.

Science and technology policy makers must first of all realize the gravity of the problem and then try to tackle it pragmatically that is, provide adequate funds for a sound infrastructure of mathematical research.

By and large, mathematicians do not need laboratories. Rather they need good research libraries and computers for each individual mathematician without linking it with a research project. Funding for specific mathematical projects follows later and is secondary to the first one. Not many mathematicians will be able to receive funds for their projects due to the conditions laid in the new policy. Policy requirements have just ignored the very nature of mathematics in general and pure mathematics in particular.

The world is celebrating year 2000 as the millennium of mathematics. Many special mathematical activities are taking place in the world. The importance that the scientifically developed countries are giving to mathematics is evident from the example that one million-dollar will be awarded for the solution of each of the famous seven mathematical problems. There are efforts to improve, encourage, and facilitate fundamental research in mathematics.

On the other hand, we in Pakistan are spending money on producing catalogues for rating Pakistani scientists and proposing passing an ordinance to use the Impact Factor in awarding funds for research projects.

There is no denying that there should be some formula to gauge the quality of mathematical research in Pakistan. But it is not practical to have one formula for all sciences because each branch of science is very different in nature from the other. Besides, that formula should be an internationally acceptable yardstick which produces reliable results. One suggestion is that mathematical journals listed in the SCI Journal Citation Reports should be classified on the basis of the journals listed in the American Mathematical Society.

We need to convince the administrators and policy makers that mathematics in Pakistan is in a state of crises and that its uplift is a necessity.