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| TIPS FROM THE EDITOR |
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| Year : 2013 | Volume
: 1
| Issue : 2 | Page : 120 |
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Journal Impact Factor
Hassan Bella
University of Dammam, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
| Date of Web Publication | 25-Dec-2013 |
Correspondence Address:
Hassan Bella
University of Dammam, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441
Saudi Arabia
 DOI: 10.4103/1658-631X.123653 
How to cite this article:
Bella H. Journal Impact Factor. Saudi J Med Med Sci 2013;1:120 |
Questions have been raised in recent times, especially in our part of the world, on the impact factor of the journals (JIF). Most of the scientific councils in many universities require that articles of faculty applying for academic promotion should be published in journals with a high impact factor. The following gives a brief account of this issue.
JIF measures the number of times an article in the journal has been cited in the previous 2 years. It is therefore, a measure of the relative size of the citation curve between 2 and 3 years after publication. It is an uncomplicated method of comparing journals depending on their size and is used to establish the journals that should be included in the science citation index. JIF has become the primary method for judging journal quality. It also provides a quantitative tool for ranking, evaluating, categorizing and comparing various journals.
JIF is widely regarded by the authors and academic programs as a measure of a journal's prestige and value and may be important for career advancement in academic medicine. However, it can be affected by a number of factors unrelated to journal quality, such as:
- Self-citation by a journal
- Publication timing
- Types of articles published.
As a result, JIF has become a much discussed issue among authors and editors of journals. Based on these discussions, the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Board has made the following recommendations to its members:
- More research is needed to evaluate the IF and other measures of the journal and the article quality. They urge editors to consider important research questions and conduct research in this field. WAME offers its virtual discussion room for contacts and plans
- Journal editors should look beyond IF as a summary statistics and present other indicators of journal visibility, such as circulation, number of published articles and the distribution of the citations. Such demographics of a journal should be regularly published to inform journal readers and authors.
- Journal editors have the responsibility to educate their readers, authors, administrators and their scientific community in general about impact factor and its relevance, as well as about other measures of journal and article quality.
| Sources | |  |
Most of the above statements were taken 'as is' from the following sources:
- WAME
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Proceedings of the national conference on medical editing, April 2007 Pakistan.
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