Impact factor, H index, peer comparisons, and Retrovirology

[Eugene Garfield]

Editorial
	HYPERLINK "http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/openaccess/" HYPERLINK "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0".	
Impact factor, H index, peer comparisons, and Retrovirology: is it time to individualize citation metrics?
Kuan-Teh Jeang HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/registration/technical.asp?process=default&msg=ce" 
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

Retrovirology 2007, 4:42     doi:10.1186/1742-4690-4-42

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42"http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42

 
© 2007 Jeang; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (HYPERLINK "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 
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 	  	 Abstract	

	 	 



There is a natural tendency to judge a gift by the attractiveness of its wrapping. In some respect, this reflects current mores of measuring the gravitas of a scientific paper based on the journal cover in which the work appears. Most journals have an impact factor (IF) which some proudly display on their face page. Although historically journal IF has been a convenient quantitative shorthand, has its (mis)use contributed to inaccurate perceptions of the quality of scientific articles? Is now the time that equally convenient but more individually accurate metrics be adopted?


 	
Outline	  	 	



HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42#IDAQUY3HB"Abstract	
HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42#IDAVUY3HB"	
HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42#IDAVYWOC"Acknowledgements	
HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42#references"References	

Figures	
HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42/figure/F1" 
Figure 1
A comparison of Retrovirology's calculated 2006 impact factor with selected journals that publish retrovirus research papers
	

Tables	
HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42/table/T1" 
Table 1
Citation frequency and H index for selected Retrovirology Editorial Board members (data collated on June 11, 2007 from Scopus).
	
 	 


I surmise that a common question posed to an editor of a new journal is "What is your impact factor?" Based on my experience, in the majority of instances as the conversation evolves, it becomes evident that the questioner misunderstands what impact factor means. IF is a useful number. However, its limitations must be clearly recognized. Given the pervasive (if not obsessive) interest in IF, Retrovirology, as a new journal entering its fourth year of publication, has necessarily mined the citation databases and calculated IF numbers for 2005 (2.98) and 2006 (4.32) [HYPERLINK "http://www.retrovirology.com/content/4/1/42#B1"1]. After having captured those numbers, it is perhaps instructive to consider some factual denotations and frequently misinterpreted connotations of IF. Indeed, as science and medicine march to a more personalized approach, one might further ask if it is time to embrace highly accessible technology in order to complement/supplant generic IF with individually precise citation metrics?

 

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