Labanaris, AP; Vassiliadi, AP; Polykandriotis, E; Tjiawi, J; Arkudas, A; Horch, RE Impact factors and publication times for plastic surgery journals PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY, 120 (7): 2076-2081 DEC 2007

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: raymund.horch at chir.imed.uni-erlangen.de 

Author(s): Labanaris, AP (Labanaris, Apostolos P.); Vassiliadi, AP 
(Vassiliadi, Agapi P.); Polykandriotis, E (Polykandriotis, Elias); Tjiawi, 
J (Tjiawi, Jimmy); Arkudas, A (Arkudas, Andreas); Horch, RE (Horch, 
Raymund E.) 

Title: Impact factors and publication times for plastic surgery journals 

Source: PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY, 120 (7): 2076-2081 DEC 2007 

Language: English 
Document Type: Article 

Addresses: Univ Erlangen Nurnberg, Med Ctr, Dept Plast & Hand Surg, D-
91054 Erlangen, Germany; Europakanal Med Ctr, Dept Psychiat & 
Psychotherapy, Erlangen, Germany 

Background: The purposes of the authors’ analysis were to assess the 
values that
plastic surgical journals demonstrate in terms of the standardized measures
created by the Institute for Scientific Information’s Journal Citation 
Report, and
to assess the relationship between these values and the turnaround time of 
these
journals.

Methods: The overall indexes of surgical journals were compared with those 
of
journals in other fields of medicine using the following parameters: 
highest
impact factor, average impact factor, cited half-life, immediacy index, 
and number
of journals. Similarly, plastic surgery journals were compared with the
highest ranking journals from various fields of surgery. In addition, an 
evaluation
of all original articles published in 2005, assessing the time intervals 
from
submission to publication, submission to acceptance, and acceptance to 
publication,
was conducted for all plastic surgical journals and the highest ranking
journals from various surgical fields listed in the Journal Citation 
Report.

Results: Plastic surgical journals demonstrated low overall index values 
and a
greater elongation of their turnaround time in comparison to journals in 
other
fields of surgery and medicine.

Conclusions: The fact that the field of plastic surgery targets a rather 
specific
and limited medical audience, and that plastic surgical articles usually 
get
quoted by this audience, partly explains these values. Furthermore, the 
elongated
turnaround time contributes to their endurance. Since plastic surgical
journals cannot attract a broader medical audience, journals should speed 
up
their publication times to help these values rise. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 
120:
2076, 2007.)

Reprint Address: Horch, RE, Univ Erlangen Nurnberg, Med Ctr, Dept Plast & 
Hand Surg, Krankenhausstr 12, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany. 

E-mail Address: raymund.horch at chir.imed.uni-erlangen.de 

Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS 

Publisher Address: 530 WALNUT ST, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106-3621 USA 

ISSN: 0032-1052 

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