This document discusses how to evaluate medical journals using impact factors and choose where to publish research. It defines impact factors as the average number of citations to a journal's articles over the past two years. High impact factors indicate more influential journals. The document provides tips on finding impact factors in the Journal Citation Reports database and viewing top journals in various fields. It also gives data on MD Anderson's publications in some of the most highly cited journals and recommends additional factors to consider when selecting a journal for submission.
1. Before You
research Publish:
medical Finding Impact Factors
and Choosing a Journal
library
Laurissa Gann &
April Aultman Becker
Research Medical Library
University of Texas M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center
2. Impact Factors
Average frequency with which articles from a
journal are used as citations in major journals
during the previous two years
Why Calculate Impact Factors?
• Evaluate the scholarly worth (impact) of a journal
• Rank journals within a discipline
• Evaluation for promotions, tenure, or grants
• Compare contributions of one discipline with another
• Help you decide where to publish your article for
maximum impact
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3. How is an Impact Factor calculated?
A = the number of times articles
published in 2009 and 2010 were cited
A ÷B= by a journal during 2011.
Impact Factor B = the total number of "citable items"
published by that journal in 2009 and
2010.
"Citable items" are usually
articles, reviews, proceedings; not news
articles, editorials, etc.
Note that 2011 impact factors are actually published
in 2012.
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7. What is a high Impact Factor?
2011 impact factors:
2011 Number
% Remaining
• 8281 journals with impact factors Impact
Factor
of
Journals
Rank Journals
• 151 journals IF ≥ 10, top 1.8% 30 20 0.2 8261
25 31 0.37 8250
• 372 journals IF ≥ 6, top 4.5% 20 46 0.6 8235
15 65 0.8 8216
• 2707 journals IF ≥ 2, still in top 1/3 journals 12 110 1.3 8171
10 151 1.8 8130
with impact factors 9 192 2.3 8089
8 220 2.7 8061
7 274 3.3 8007
6 372 4.5 7909
5 532 6.4 7582
4 837 10.1 7749
3 1458 17.6 6823
2 2707 32.7 5574
1 4935 59.6 3346
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8. What are the most cited journals out there?
Journal Total Cites 2011 Impact Factor
Nature 526,505 36.280
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the USA 504,243 9.681
Science 480,839 31.201
Journal of the American Chemical Society 408,307 9.907
Journal of Biological Chemistry 402,449 4.773
Physical Review Letters 335,444 7.370
Physical Review B 278,680 3.691
New England Journal of Medicine 232,068 53.298
Angewandte Chemie-International Edition 209,862 13.455
Applied Physics Letters 203,336 3.844
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9. How often does MD Anderson publish in
these top journals?
2000-2011 Articles Editorials Reviews 2011 Impact Factor
JAMA 14 5 1 30.026
NEJM 31 17 4 53.298
Nature 18 5 0 36.280
Science 8 6 1 31.201
Total 71 33 6
Faculty average 9.2 publications per year:
• 6 articles
• 2.75 editorials
• 0.5 reviews
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10. How do I choose a journal?
• Journal Citation Report
• Literature search
• Find similar articles
• See who is citing the articles
• “About this Journal”
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11. Where are others publishing?
WEBINAR:
Wed, August 8
11:30am – 12:00pm
Research Profiles:
Track Your
Publications & Find
Collaborators
12. Contact the Research
Medical Library
In Person: Pickens Tower, Floor 21 or
SCRB4, Floor 1
Phone: 713-792-2282
Email: RML-Help@mdanderson.org
research Chat: click on “Ask Us” at
http://libanswers.mdanderson.org
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library
Notas do Editor
IntroduceLaurissa and myselfWebinar logistics:Let us know if you can’t hearWe can’t hear youChat boxFull screenRecording
An impact factor is a number assigned to a journal that measures the relative importance of a journal within its particular field. The higher the number, generally the more important that journal is to the scientific community. Publishing in a journal with a higher impact factor raises your personal impact or your citability
Note that 2011 impact factors are actually published in 2012; they cannot be calculated until all of the 2011 publications have been processed by the indexing agency.Knowing the formula, how do you think a journal could raise their impact? Publishinga low number of articles that will be cited frequently will raise the IF.Not surprising that publishers of scientific journals areeager to use favorable impact factors for the promotion of their products. This has led a well knownjournals to an attempt manipulation of the process (Leukemia and SHOCK)Editors can require that the journal presently requests that several references to itself are incorporated in thereference list. Called self-cites.Editors can requestupon publication of the article the author is requested to send copies to colleagues and urge them tocite it.Journals may publish a larger percentage of review articles which are generally cited more than research reports.Journals may publish a large fraction of papers that they expect to be highly cited early in the calendar year to give them more time to gather citations.
Journal Citation Reports database is the only indexing agencyThere are other scales to measure impact, but Impact Factor numbers from JCR are the standard.Ifit isn’t in JCR, it isn’t indexed and does not have an IF.Might not have an IF if it’s too new or not publishing with enough impact in the field:New journals, which are indexed from their first published issue, will receive an impact factor after two years of indexingAnnuals and other irregular publications sometimes publish no items in a particular year, affecting the count.
Why is CA so high? They publish the national cancer statistics each year, and you have to cite those if you are researching. Cited all the time. Not cutting edge, but important.
Notice Journal Self Cites – one reason a journal could rank so high
6 plus is the most frequent cutoff for evaluations, etc. Sort of a standard at MD Anderson.The other most commonly requested cutoffs are 5 plus and 10 plus.What is a reasonable Impact Factor?Thereis a difference between faculty and residents/fellows. If you aren’t faculty, you are competing with them for publishing. Don’t be discouraged if not accepted.If you aren’t faculty, you don’t have to shoot for 6+…a 2 is still good.
Total citations ever of the journals.Why do some of the most cited journals have low impact factors? High numbers of published itemsNotice the fields that these journal are in…if you are a behavioral science faculty member, you may not find many journals with high impact factors because more is being published and cited in physics, chemistry, etc.
10 years of statsJournal of the AmericanMedical Association IF = 30.026New England Journal of Medicine IF = 53.298Nature IF = 36.280Science IF = 31.201
How do I choose a journal?Doyour literature search, compiled a mass of articles. Pick the articles that best match your search criteria and we’ll find in them in WOS. In WOS, we can look at who’s been citing that article and start compiling a list of journals. Look at the “About this journal” section of the journal website. Make sure your manuscript matches the scope of the journal.*SciVal Experts. You can find out where Anderson people are publishing.
There is no easy way to identify where a whole department is publishing. SciVal Experts is probably the best place to direct MDA people to. Users can look at some various views of department level information.WEBINAR: Wed, August 8, 11:30am – 12:00pmResearch Profiles - Track Your Publications & Find CollaboratorsThis webinar will show you how to create a research profile using ResearcherID and Google Citations. Research profiles help you track your publications, citation count, and h-index. They can also be a great source to connect you to future potential collaborators. SciVal Experts, a curated database of MD Anderson faculty research profiles, will also be demonstrated.