Pham Quoc Anh

IMPACT FACTOR
The journal impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a
journal has been cited in a particular year. It is calculated by dividing the number of current citations
to articles published in the two previous years by the total number of articles published in the two
previous years. The impact factor will help you evaluate a journal’s relative importance, especially
when you compare it to others in the same field (1).
The sole advantage of IF is that it helps compare journals of the same field. It gives an idea of
journal’s relative importance and reputation (2).
A major disadvantage of impact factor is that people often associates impact factor with the
quality of the article. IF doesn’t reflect the impact or citations of an individual article. Each article is
described not in terms of its own statistics, but that of the journal. So, an article having fewer citations
published in a high IF journal is given more importance than a highly cited article in a low IF journal.
The problem can become worse when we consider self-citation and the fact that review articles are
generally highly cited. As a result, if an article comes from a journal where self-citation often happens
or there are a lot of review paper, it is likely to get more importance that it should have (2). Another
problem is negotiated values, which result in dramatic changes in the observed scores for dozens of
journals, sometimes after unrelated events like the purchase by one of the larger publishers (3). Results
of an impact factor can change dramatically depending on which items are considered as "citable"
and therefore included in the denominator. One notorious example of this occurred in 1988 when it
was decided that meeting abstracts published in FASEB Journal would no longer be included in the
denominator. The journal's impact factor jumped from 0.24 in 1988 to 18.3 in 1989 (4).
In response to the inappropriate use of IF, certain scientists, groups, institutions and
publishers have come together to sign DORA, a declaration that rejects the use of IF in determining
one’s scientific merit and accomplishment (2). Individually, to assess the true importance of an article
without the influence of IF, focus should not be on IF, rather it should be on the content of the
papers, level of research, and importance of outcome of the study. The application of research and
the benefits that it would bring to the society must be considered (2).

References:
(1) https://www.nihlibrary.nih.gov/about-us/faqs/what-are-journal-impact-factors
(2) https://bitesizebio.com/25124/making-an-impact-pros-and-cons-to-impact-factor/
(3) http://bjoern.brembs.net/2016/01/just-how-widespread-are-impact-factor-negotiations/
(4) https://www.nature.com/articles/43768-c1

ALL RESOURCES WERE VIEWED ON FEBRUARY 23, 2023