Impact factor JUMPS after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective study in Dermatology journals.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The term "JUMPS" was used to describe the impact factor (IF) in an article published in PubMed in 2021, representing an increase of more than 40% of IF. AIMS: In this study, we aimed to compare the growth rate of IF JUMPS in Dermatology in the last 5 years, and particularly the effect of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study evaluated the growth rate (JUMP) in IF from 2016 to 2020. We used the Friedman and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests. We classified JUMPS in negative growth rate; Q1 to Q4 quartiles; and journals with > 100%. A 76-100% growth rate was observed in five (7%) journals, and twelve journals (17%) depicted a 51-75% percentage of change. RESULTS: Several journals in the Dermatology category increased their IF by 50%. Repeated measures analyses showed a significant difference (p < .001). CONCLUSION: Although we found journals with growth rates in the four quartiles, no journals depicted negative growth rates nor > 100% growth. Knowing the growing trends in this category might supplement the assessment of target journals for authors looking to submit their works.