This article (5 page PDF) describes and criticizes information analytics services such as Elsevier's SciVal. It is concerning because it may play a role in staffing and funding, and "more problematic might be the fact that publication, curation and evaluation of science are increasingly in the hands of private sector stakeholders." It should be understood, I would say, that this is the first indication of analytics-based assessment that will be applied to professionals more generally (think LinkedIn metrics) and to the population as a whole (think YouTube metrics). There's nothing inherently wrong with assessing people based on their actual output, but we need to have clarity and openness about the nature, purpose and criteria on which that assessment is based.
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