Impact factor and its role in academic promotion

Abstract

shotgun fired at close quarters during military duty into the anterior lower thorax. The lower chest wall, liver, pericardium, base of right lung and heart were impregnated with shot pellets, giving the classical multiple ''star burst '' appearance. (fig. 1a). Extensive debridement of the chest wall wound was performed, with the removal of numerous lead shots. Intracardiac and intrapulmonary shots were left in situ and successfully managed conservatively [5]. He remained asymptomatic. Injuries were monitored by serial CT scans and echocardiograms, which later showed evidence of embolisation of multiple shots into the lung ( fig. 1b) Impact factor and its role in academic promotionTo the Editors:The following statement was adopted unanimously at the May 17, 2009, meeting of the International Respiratory Journal Editors Roundtable.In our collective experience as editors of international peerreviewed journals, we propose that the impact factor calculated for individual journals should not be used as a basis for evaluating the significance of an individual scientist's past performance or scientific potential. There are several reasons not to equate the impact factor of a journal in which the scientist publishes with the quality of the scientist's research. For example, as revealed by several recently published analyses of the impact factor [1-6]:1) A journal's impact factor is determined by a decided minority of its published manuscripts. Thus the impact factor correlates poorly with the citations of an individual manuscript.2) The impact factor does not consider the number of scientists actively producing research in a given specialty field. Indeed, some journals feel the need to serve constituencies with relatively small numbers of participants who continue to address important questions even though the number of scientists available for citations is limited.3) A journal's impact factor can be inflated by certain journal practices, such as publication of many review articles.4) Impact factor measures only the frequency of citations which cannot be assumed to always equate with quality.There are alternative and we believe more valid measures of the quality and impact of an individual scientist's published contributions. First, a citation record for the individual candidate is readily available via several types of Internet search engines. Second, the time-honoured practice of soliciting evaluations concerning the significance of a candidate's work from scientific peers who are carefully selected to be both highly qualified as well as clearly ''arms-length'' from the candidate should be rigorously applied.

The ambition of the European Respiratory Journal

“…Despite obvious limitations [5], it is now widely accepted that having the best possible impact factor (and by association, being ranked in the top journals in the field of respiratory medicine) is important for our authors and readers. There is no doubt that the previous Chief Editors of the Journal performed very well and that our current impact factor is good ( fig.…”

ERJ Open Researchreceives its first impact factor and plans for the next step

“…While IF is not a perfect indicator of scientific quality [ 2 , 3 ], it may reflect how well a journal has selected and disseminated its content. Additionally, IF is a key factor for authors who are considering submitting their work and are choosing a publication.…”

The European Respiratory Journal makes COPD a priority

“…Needless to say that scientific merit remains the fundamental determinant of the final accept or reject decision in any given submission [7,8]. We hope that helping future authors to direct their manuscripts to these topics will ultimately produce the mutual benefit to both them and ourselves, as their messages will be promptly disseminated and the journal will maintain or even increase its profile and prestige [9]. The COPD research topics that would be most welcome by the ERJ editors are summarised in table 1 and are briefly covered in the following text by areas.…”