Increasing our Reachhere is some exciting news to share about Simulation in Healthcare as we close out 2022 and begin a new year. First, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) reached new heights this year and second, our digital reach is increasing.
THE 2021 JOURNAL IMPACT FACTORThe JIF provides an index of citations of articles recently published in other journals within the Clarivate™ Web of Science Database. Our new JIF increased from 1.93 to 2.69 and our 5-year JIF increased from 3.28 to 3.52. These are the highest JIF numbers in the Journal's history. These numbers underscore the critical role that simulation continues to play within healthcare education, training, and practice.As I indicated last year, Clarivate™ changed the way they calculate the JIF. 1,2 Specifically, they changed how they count Published Ahead of Print (PAP) and Early Access articles. The JIF is a ratio of the number of articles in the journal cited by other articles divided by the number of "citable" articles published in the previous two years. Up until 2020, Early Access/PAP articles were not counted in the JIF calculations. That is, early access articles were not included in the numerator unless the final published version was in the current year, or the final version was available for to be counted in the denominator.Last year was a transitional year. The numerator included non-Early Access items with a final publication year of 2020, Early Access items in 2020 (not yet in an issue), and Early Access items with a final publication year of 2020. The denominator was based on citable items from 2018 and 2019. So, many journals had elevated JIFs last year due to more citable items caused by the pandemic-related increase in output. That includes our Journal since we published additional online-only content. This resulted in more citations and an increased numerator, but with a denominator that remained at previous levels.This year, however, the numerator now includes citations from non-Early Access items and Early Access items with an early access date falling within the JIF year. The denominator now includes traditional non-Early Access items with a final publication date for the prior two years as well as Early Access items with an early access publication date in the two years prior to the JIF year.Most journals anticipated lower JIFs this year due to declining numerators from publishing output returning to pre-pandemic levels coupled with increased denominators from the pandemic output boom. Thus, we were pleasantly surprised at how well our Journal faired. In a year where many journals saw a decline in their JIF, ours increased. This is very good news and validates that we are publishing the kind of scholarly content that others wish to cite. Now, having said this, we published a second expanded issue with online-only content in February of this year. So, it is possible that we may ultimately see a decline like other journals experienced in next year's JIF or in the following year. However, I want to highlight this measure of what we have...