Impact simply reflects the ability of journals and editors to attract

the best papers available (E.Garfield, Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia)

Volker Fendrich, MD

Editor Assistant, BJS

Impact factor

• Citations to recent articles 1784 = 4.092 (BJS 2006)  Number of recent articles 436     

• Ability to predict citations is weak (Callaham JAMA 2002)

• The IF of the publishing journal determines the number of citations of the article (Callaham JAMA 2002)

Relationship between IF and the level of non-citation within surgical journals

Weale et al. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2004

15% of articles account for 50% of citations

Aims

• What makes highly cited papers special?

• Are there specific differences to Ann Surg?

• Is there a way to increase the IF of BJS?

The 50 top cited papers vs the 50 bottom cited (BJS 2000-05)

Top cited Bottom citedType of article 17 reviews

5 RCTs

28 original articles

0 reviews

2 RCTs

48 original articles

Country of origin 22 Countries (Netherlands 8, Scotland 7)

17 Countries

(England 17)

Discipline of first authour 98% surgeons 98% surgeons

Average citations since publication

80.8 0.8

Total citations since publication 4039 39

Cited in journals with higher IF (Ann Surg)

556 (127) 3 (1)

Cited in journals with lower IF 3233 31

Citations in BJS (% of all) 250 (6.2%) 5 (12.8%)

Topic: TOP or FLOP?

• Complications of radiofrequency coagulation of liver tumours

• Intra-anal and rectal application of L-erythro methoxamine gel increases anal resting pressure in healthy volunteers

• Randomized clinical trial of virtual reality simulation for laparoscopic skills training

• Operative mortality after colorectal resection in the Netherlands

• Value of POSSUM physiology scoring to assess outcome after intra-arterial thrombolysis for acute leg ischaemia

• Prognostic significance of the circumferential resection margin following total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer

Topic: Top or flop?• Complications of radiofrequency coagulation of liver tumours

• Intra-anal and rectal application of L-erythro methoxamine gel increases anal resting pressure in healthy volunteers

• Randomized clinical trial of virtual reality simulation for laparoscopic skills training

• Operative mortality after colorectal resection in the Netherlands

• Value of POSSUM physiology scoring to assess outcome after intra-arterial thrombolysis for acute leg ischaemia

• Prognostic significance of the circumferential resection margin following total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer

The competitors

Self Citations

2004

Self Citations

2005

Ann Surg 4.1% 7.8%

BJS 5.7% 5.0%

Top 20 reviews 2004/05 570 total citations 555 total citations

Impact factor Top 20 reviews

28.5 27.75

Main topics Totally mixed Totally mixed

Top 20 articles 2004/05 879 total citations 1911 total citations

Impact factor Top 20 articles

43.95 95.55

Main topics Colorectal cancer

(9/20)

Liver metastases (8/20)

What makes the difference?

Rising influence of China?

Chinese IF 2006: 3.23 (2004-05: 13 articles, 42 citations)

Chinese IF 2006: 3.25 (2004-05: 12 articles, 39 citations)

Note: Nearly 50% of all publications from Poon et al. University of Hong Kong

How to increase the IF?

• Self citations – unethical? (Sevinc 2004)

• Online availability (Murali et al 2004)

• Online survey to ask for desired topics

• Select authors on the basis of past performance