There is a widespread impression that the scientific journal "Astronomy &
Astrophysics" (A&A) has a smaller impact, as measured by citations to articles,
than some of the other major astronomy journals. This impression was apparently
supported - and probably created - by the Journal Citation Report (JCR), which
is prepared annually by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Web of
Knowledge. The published poor impact factor of A&A was in fact wrong and was
due to a serious flaw in the method used by ISI Web of Knowledge to determine
it. The resulting damage inflicted upon A&A by the JCR is incalculable.Comment: 4 pages, to be published in A. Heck (ed.) "Organizations and
Strategies in Astronomy, Vol. 5" (Kluwer, 2004