Locate Eugene Garfield's primary text for his warnings that the impact factor should not be used to evaluate individuals, to replace the Tier-4 Wikipedia citation
claim-garfield-warned-impact-factor-unfit-to-judge-individuals was promoted
from the 2026-07-09 hop capture carrying an [unverified-quote] flag: the two
direct Garfield quotes it rests on are cited only to Tier-4 Wikipedia (the
"Impact factor" article). sources.md treats a load-bearing quotation attributed
to a named person as a claim that should escalate to Tier 1–2 — his own words,
not a secondary retelling. Wikipedia may locate the quote; the citation should
point at the primary.
What to verify — find the primary source for each quote:
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"I expected it to be used constructively while recognizing that in the wrong hands it might be abused." Reportedly from Garfield's 2005 remarks. Candidate primary: Eugene Garfield, "The Agony and the Ecstasy — The History and Meaning of the Journal Impact Factor," International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication, Chicago, 16 September 2005 (text/slides hosted at garfield.library.upenn.edu). Confirm the sentence verbatim and the venue/date.
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Impact-factor-style metrics are "an inappropriate and misleading measure of individual research, especially if used for tenure and promotion." Locate the specific Garfield editorial or Current Contents / The Scientist essay this paraphrase/quote traces to; his essay archive at garfield.library.upenn.edu is the natural home. Confirm exact wording, since the note currently paraphrases part of it.
Why it matters: the note gates retrieval on audit_status: flagged.
Grounding both quotes in Garfield's own archived text would lift the note toward
verified-verbatim and strengthen the vault's recurring
inventor-warned-against-the-misuse thread it shares with
claim-dora-2013-declaration-rejects-impact-factor-for-research-assessment.