Ioannidis, JPA; Belbasis, L; Evangelou, E. 2010. Fifty-Year Fate and Impact of General Medical Journals. PLOS ONE 5 (9): art. no.-e12531

[Eugene Garfield]

Ioannidis, JPA; Belbasis, L; Evangelou, E. 2010. Fifty-Year Fate and Impact of 
General Medical Journals. PLOS ONE 5 (9): art. no.-e12531..

Author Full Name(s): Ioannidis, John P. A.; Belbasis, Lazaros; Evangelou, 
Evangelos

Language: English
Document Type: Article
KeyWords Plus: SLEEPING BEAUTIES; SCIENCE; DISEASE; CITATIONS

Abstract: Background: Influential medical journals shape medical science and 
practice and their prestige is usually appraised by citation impact metrics, such 
as the journal impact factor. However, how permanent are medical journals and 
how stable is their impact over time?
Methods and Results: We evaluated what happened to general medical journals 
that were publishing papers half a century ago, in 1959. Data were retrieved 
from ISI Web of Science for citations and PubMed (Journals function) for 
journal history. Of 27 eligible journals publishing in 1959, 4 have stopped 
circulation (including two of the most prestigious journals in 1959) and another 
7 changed name between 1959 and 2009. Only 6 of these 27 journals have 
been published continuously with their initial name since they started 
circulation. The citation impact of papers published in 1959 gives a very 
different picture from the current journal impact factor; the correlation 
between the two is non-significant and very close to zero. Only 13 of the 
5,223 papers published in 1959 received at least 5 citations in 2009.
Conclusions: Journals are more permanent entities than single papers, but they 
are also subject to major change and their relative prominence can change 
markedly over time.

Addresses: [Ioannidis, John P. A.; Belbasis, Lazaros; Evangelou, Evangelos] 
Univ Ioannina, Sch Med, Dept Hyg & Epidemiol, GR-45110 Ioannina, Greece; 
[Ioannidis, John P. A.] Fdn Res & Technol Hellas, Biomed Res Inst, Ioannina, 
Greece; [Ioannidis, John P. A.] Tufts Univ, Sch Med, Dept Med, Tufts Clin & 
Translat Sci Inst, Boston, MA 02111 USA; [Ioannidis, John P. A.] Tufts Univ, 
Sch Med, Inst Clin Res & Hlth Policy Studies, Tufts Med Ctr, Boston, MA 02111 
USA; [Ioannidis, John P. A.] Harvard Univ, Sch Publ Hlth, Dept Epidemiol, 
Boston, MA 02115 USA

Reprint Address: Ioannidis, JPA, Univ Ioannina, Sch Med, Dept Hyg & Epidemiol, 
GR-45110 Ioannina, Greece.

E-mail Address: jioannid at cc.uoi.gr
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012531
fulltext: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012531