A Proposal for Topic‐based Impact Factors and their Application to Occupational Health Literature

Japanese journals also have their citation classics in occupational medicine

“…Previous authors have commented that the relatively low impact factor of occupational medicine journals, for example, may be due in part to impact factor calculations only having a 2-year citation counting period (18,19). Such a hypothesis supports the observations of Gehanno and his colleagues (1), for which the most frequently cited paper in their list was 47 years old.…”

Historical Development of the Journal Impact Factor and its Relevance for Occupational Health

“…While it is well-known that impact factors of most periodicals in this field rarely exceed two 17) , certain prestigious clinical journals may have impact factor scores twenty times higher than that 18) . Such phenomenon was graphically illustrated by Uehara et al 18) , who listed the impact factors of some "typical" occupational health journals at the time, finding that the highest score was only 1.508. A similar situation is also evident when using contemporary data adapted from the 2006 Journal Citation Reports ® .…”

“…Although Australia has one of the world's highest mesothelioma incidence rates for example 98) , the first local case report describing occupational asbestos exposure and mesothelioma in 1962 99) was largely ignored. While it is unclear exactly how long the citation counting period for occupational health periodicals might be extended to, it appears that our field would certainly benefit from some kind of extension 18) . At a broader level, the two-year citation counting period may need to be adjusted not only for this discipline, but also for larger and more general fields with relatively longer lagtimes in their research, such as public health.…”

“…Due to its marketing value and attractiveness for potential authors and advertisers, most journals advertise a current impact factor on their website, with some also including a historical record of trends from the past few years. Despite this fact, the mystery and complexity behind each year's impact factor calculations are frequently misunderstood by many scholars, while its usefulness for small research fields such as occupational health, has also been debated 5,17,18) . For these reasons, the current paper provides an overview of journal impact factors for the occupational health professional, including pivotal moments in its historical development, scientific milestones in global research and journal publishing, as well as a summary and discussion of its inherent strengths and limitations.…”

Bibliometric Research in Occupational Health

“…In their study the author found that more than half of all manuscripts rejected by OEM eventually found their way into the scientific literature covered by Medline. In 2003, Uehara and colleagues 19) followed up Takahashi et al's 13) original proposal for topic-based impact factors, with a look at occupational diseases and occupational health services. The authors concluded that topic-based impact factors offered an important reference standard for articles published on the same topic, and hence, grouped them in a manner somewhat akin to a 'virtual' journal.…”