The latest bogus scholarly metric to appear is International Impact Factor Services (IIFS). If you need a laugh, I recommend that you have a look at its ridiculous website.
The site apparently aims to function as an alternative to the legitimate Impact Factor published by Thomson Reuters. It takes years for new journals to get an impact factor, and this new service eliminates that inconvenience by providing impact factors to journals with almost no delay.
In fact, according to the IIFS website, “Journal that have a valid ISSN No. (Online / Print) & published Minimum two Issues can apply for IIFS and be eligible for it.”
I think IIFS will sell impact factors to journals and publishers. In turn, the journals will display their IIFS impact factors on their websites to lure potential scholarly authors into thinking they are legitimate and submitting papers.
The IIFS website is notable for its sloppy language. Its main page has this text:
I suspect none of this is true. The site was likely set up by a single man with dreams of easy money.
Also, one of the links at the bottom of the main page has this embarrassing misspelling:
This bogus company is based somewhere in India, home to many such scams.
If you see any journal that displays an IIFS impact factor, I recommend that you not submit any papers to the journal. Be on the lookout for additional bogus metrics to appear soon.
