Benavent RA, Zurian JCV, Melendez RS, Molina CN "National and international impact factor of NEUROLOGIA" NEUROLOGIA 19 (6): 283-284 JUL-AUG 2004

[Eugene Garfield]

The following short editorial was published in Spanish.  At my request, the
authors have very kindly provided a full-text English translation for those
of us who are not proficient in Spanish.


R.A. Benavent :
E-mail Addresses: aleixand at uv.es

Title    : National and international impact factor of NEUROLOGIA
Author(s): Benavent RA, Zurian JCV, Melendez RS, Molina CN
Source   : NEUROLOGIA 19 (6): 283-284 JUL-AUG 2004

Document Type: Editorial Material
Language: Spanish
Cited References: 6

Addresses:
Benavent RA (reprint author), Univ Valencia, Fac Med Valencia, Inst Hist
Ciencia & Documentac Lopez Pinero, Consejo Super Invest Cient, Av Blasco
Ibanez 15, Valencia, 46010 Spain

Univ Valencia, Fac Med Valencia, Inst Hist Ciencia & Documentac Lopez
Pinero, Consejo Super Invest Cient, Valencia, 46010 Spain

Publisher: S T M EDITORES, S A, PASEO DE GRACIA 25, 3, 08007 BARCELONA, SPAIN


IDS Number: 844QK
ISSN: 0213-4853


Cited References:
Cited Author Cited Work         Year Volume Page
ALEIXANDRE R TRASTORNOS ADICTIVOS 2000 1 264
BORDONS M REV ESP CARDIOL 1999 52 790
BUELACASAL G ANAL MODIFICACION CO 2002 28 455
GARFIELD E INT J CLIN HLTH PSYC 2003 3 363
PORCEL A PSIQUIATRIA BIOL 2000 7 242
TORRENS AP ADICCIONES 2003 15 309




TRANSLATION PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS:

National and international impact factor of "NEUROLOGÍA"

Institute of History of Science and Documentation Lopez Piñero
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - University of Valencia

R. Aleixandre Benavent
J. C. Valderrama Zurian, R. Simo Melendez, C. Navarro Molina.

Correspondence:
Rafael Aleixandre Benavent
Instituto de Historia de la Ciencia y Documentación López Piñero
Facultad de Medicina de Valencia
Av. Blasco Ibañez, 15
46010 Valencia. Spain
E-mail: aleixand at uv. es

Received on 15-4-04
Accepted on 15-4-04

The potential impact factor study of the Spanish medical journals financed
by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports has made it
possible to obtain the national and international value in 2001 of this
indicated in a selection of 87 Spanish medical journals1, among them
"NEUROLOGÍA." Although what the impact factor (IF) really measures is the
mean frequency of citation of each journal in the previous two years, it has
presently become a quality index of the publications, since it is based on
the recognition of their value by the scientific community through
citations2-4 and has noticeably increased the interest of the editors of the
journals in obtaining a good IF or in increasing it5-7.

For the analysis of the citations of the mentioned study, 87 source journals
included in the national bibliographic data based Spanish Medical Index
(IME) and also in some international data base (Medline, Science citation
Index [SCI], Excerpta Medica, Biosis) were selected. In these journals, the
citable articles (research articles in a strict sense, reviews and notes
according to the ISI methodology) were obtained. In them, 3,547 references
corresponding to 1999, 2000 and 2001 that cited some of the source journals
were identified.

The national IF was calculated by dividing the citations that the articles
published in "NEUROLOGÍA" in the previous two years (1999 and 2000) had
received in 2001 divided by the articles published during these two years.
The immediacy index, which measures the earliness in the citation, was
calculated by dividing the citations of 2001 by the articles published this
year. To obtain the international IF, the citations from the 87 Spanish
source journals were added to those that these same journals had received in
the foreign journals included in the SCI. Thus, this international IF
corresponds to the hypothetical one that the 87 source journals would have
if all were included as sources in the SCI.

Table 1 shows the national and international FI and immediacy index of
"NEUROLOGÍA" as well as the citation amounts, citable articles and
operations performed for its calculation. The journal obtained a national IF
of 0.365 and international IF of 0.477. The immediacy index was 0.035. Both
the national and international IF were superior to that of the "Revista de
Neurología" (national IF of 0.294 points and international IF of 0.373) and
"Neurocirugía" (national IF of 0.13 and international IF of 0.16).

In spite of having obtained a moderate IF, "NEUROLOGÍA" is consolidated as
the Spanish journal of its speciality that has obtained repercussion
indicators having the greatest magnitude, both in number of citations
received as well as in the national and international impact factor,
circumstances that justify its deserved inclusion as source journal in the SCI.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study was carried out with the help of the Studies and Analysis Program
(announcement 2003) of the General Direction of Universities of the Ministry
of Education, Culture and Sports.
actor de impacto nacional e internacional de Neurologia