Methodi Ordinatio 2.0: revisited under statistical estimation, and presenting FInder and RankIn

The assessment of scientific articles regarding their relevance to a research portfolio is becoming increasingly important. The reason is that scientific works have been growing quantitative and qualitatively. Taking this scenario into account, Methodi Ordinatio was proposed, and its major contribution was the 7th phase of the methodology, the InOrdinatio. It is an equation based on the main criteria for selecting a paper related to a theme: year of publication, number of citation and the impact factor (or journal metrics). However, finding the value of these three factors might not be an easy and quick task. Therefore, in order to improve the use of Methodi Ordinatio, two other tools were developed: FInder and RankIn. Thus, the first purpose of this paper is to present these two new tools. Additionally, considering that the impact factor has been a matter of disputes in the academia, the paper also proposes the use of one single indicator for the impact factor in the equation. To achieve this second purpose, a robust mathematical model was elaborated taking into consideration the other journal metrics in order to estimate the alternative impact factor to be used in InOrdinatio in case one or more papers are not indexed to any metrics. After testing with 48 statistical models and tools, the results show that this indicator is robust and trustworthy to be used. Finally, as the third as last purpose, this paper also proposes an alternative version to calculate the InOrdinatio, which can be flexible regarding the weight of its three criteria used in the equation.