Journal impact factor: what is all about it?

ABSTRACT

Journal Impact factor [ME] is one of the several indices that are calculated and published in the Journal of Citation Reports [JCR] annually by an organization called Thomson Scientific [formerly International Scientific Institute-ISI], Philadelphia, founded by Eugene Garfield. Currently it is considered an important yardstick and quantitative tool for evaluating, ranking. categorizing and comparing scientific journals, hut the reliability of JIF as an indicator for journal quality is sometimes highly debated. A number of questions have arisen about its bias, validity and imperfectness as an assessment tool. Present review is an attempt to overview its origin, methodology, uses, abuses, limitations and other possible alternatives. This also encompasses the problems faced by medical journals of developing world to deal with this enigma of JIF and also proposes some solutions to this complicated issue. All these subject matters are addressed in a form of answers to frequently asked questions [FAQ] style so that at the end of this review readers will be able to comprehend the pros and cons of the JIF issue in a better way