Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.07.05.188425v1?rss=1 Authors: Jaffe, R. Abstract: A journal ranking system called QUALIS was implemented in Brazil in 2009, intended to rank graduate programs from different subject areas and promote selected national journals. Since this system uses a complicated suit of criteria (differing among subject areas) to group journals into discrete categories, it could potentially create incentives to publish in low-impact journals ranked highly by QUALIS. Here I assess the influence of the QUALIS journal ranking system on the global impact of Brazilian science. Results reveal a steeper decrease in the number of citations per document since the implementation of this QUALIS system, compared to the top Latin American countries publishing more scientific articles. All the subject areas making up the QUALIS system showed some degree of bias, with social sciences being usually more biased than natural sciences. Lastly, the decrease in the number of citations over time proved steeper in a more biased area, suggesting a faster shift towards low-impact journals ranked highly by QUALIS. Overall, the findings documented here suggest that the QUALIS system has undermined the global impact of Brazilian science, and reinforce a recent recommendation from an official committee evaluating graduate programs to eliminate QUALIS. A journal ranking system based on internationally recognized impact metrics could avoid introducing distorted incentives, and thereby boost the global impact of Brazilian science. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info