The impact of dermatology journals

The Significance of Articles Appearing in Dermatologic Surgery

“…Previous studies looking at dermatologic literature have attempted to compared the merit of these journals by use of an impact factor, an index based on citations per paper. 1 Because the field of cutaneous surgery exists as a smaller entity of general dermatology and fewer surgical papers exist, it is reasonable to expect that there would be fewer references to surgically oriented dermatology papers.…”

“…Previous analyses of dermatology journals attempted to quantify the merit of journal based on the impact factor, an index measuring the number of citations per paper. 1 This impact factor determined the ranking order of the top 17 dermatology journals, including Dermatologic Surgery. Of note, this journal was the only dermatology journal with a primary emphasis on cutaneous surgery.…”

The Impact of Dermatologic Surgery

“…The impact factor determined by the Journal Citation Reports has been criticized in the past for including letters to the editor and editorial material in its calculation and therefore favoring those journals whose letters and editorials are highly cited. 1 However, an alternate calculation which restricted the publication types to only original articles, reviews, notes, and proceedings papers yielded essentially the same ranking order. 1 The impact factor and the ranking by the Journal Citation Reports are by no means a definitive assessment of a journal's merit.…”

“…1 However, an alternate calculation which restricted the publication types to only original articles, reviews, notes, and proceedings papers yielded essentially the same ranking order. 1 The impact factor and the ranking by the Journal Citation Reports are by no means a definitive assessment of a journal's merit. However, the impact factor serves as a guide to identify frequently cited journals and therefore considered to contain useful information to the scientific community.…”

“…Prior attempts to evaluate the merit of this particular journal have done so solely in comparison to other dermatology journals. 1 Given the overlap of cutaneous surgery with other surgical specialities, the value of Dermatologic Surgery should be assessed within the fields of both dermatology and surgery.…”