Medical Journal Impact Factor 2013: ongoing task of getting the right balance

Excerpt

At the end of July 2014, the Medical Journal Impact Factor for 2013 was released. This event is always eagerly awaited as if the fate of the scientific publishing business as a whole and of individual editors and authors hangs in the balance. There is no doubt that the impact factor is of major importance and—as the name implies—impact. It is a yardstick against which the success of journals is measured and a metric of importance for the careers of many researchers and clinicians. However, this is not the end of the story. Other factors of importance to authors in deciding on a journal in which to publish is who will be reading my research, and what are the chances of my research being published and how quickly. …