key: cord-0894702-zgs1rg80
authors: Coughlin, Brian; Cushman, Mary
title: Journal impact factor: Recent evaluation changes and Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis
date: 2021-07-17
journal: Res Pract Thromb Haemost
DOI: 10.1002/rth2.12569
sha: 8c675cc5813d575ac8cfa31902065950c4b024be
doc_id: 894702
cord_uid: zgs1rg80

nan

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) was introduced by Science Information in 1955 as a tool for librarians to prioritize journal subscriptions. 1 It subsequently came to be used as a measurement for gauging perceptions of the prestige of journals among governments, funding bodies, universities, and authors. [2] [3] [4] Because it is intricately tied to the career advancement of scientific researchers 5 while being arguably flawed and manipulable, 6 the JIF is seen as the metric authors and editors love but also hate. Some would welcome a viable alternative metric that more accurately estimates the impact and prestige of research journals and authors. 7 For Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis (RPTH), the JIF has sat on the horizon shrouded in a certain air of mystery as we have pondered when the journal would mature to the point of qualifying to receive one. At that juncture, we would be included in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), published by Clarivate Analytics.

Publishers, societies, journals, and journal editors eagerly anticipate this annual report every year as it contains the new JIFs.

The mystery regarding JIF is attributed to recent changes in how journals are evaluated for inclusion. In 2016, the year RPTH began receiving submissions for peer review, the JCR, and other related products including Web of Science (WoS), ScholarOne, and 

EDITORIAL by using succinct illustrated capsules that provide a format that potentially could improve retention and understanding of the complex concepts. 13 As it turns out, these reviews have also played a role in establishing RPTH's impact as measured by citations received. Two of the four top-cited articles published in 2019 were Illustrated Reviews. 14, 15 So, what was conceived as an experimental format aimed intuitively at improving the effectiveness of scholarly communication, has rapidly been embraced by the research community (based on number of citations received). In turn, this has raised the perceived impact of RPTH.

Overall, the trajectory of RPTH in terms of impact, as measured by both article output and the number of citations received, has shown a very steady ascension since the journal's launch in 2017. As While some love the JIF and others hate it -or both -it's here to stay. Though RPTH is unable to influence the timing of receiving F I G U R E 1 Diagram of the evaluation process and requirements for inclusion in ESCI and JCR indices. Data from Web of Science, provided by Clarivate. Web of Science and Clarivate are trademarks of their respective owners and used herein with permission F I G U R E 2 RPTH total articles published, and total in-window citations received by year, 2017-2020. Note, launch in 2017 was in July. In-window citations are those that would, per protocol of a JIF calculation, count toward a journal's JIF. 

The Clarivate Analytics Impact Factor [Originally Published as "The Thompson Reuters Impact Factor -Clarivate Analytics

Chinese academy of sciences

Cash incentives for papers go global

Perverse incentives

The top-ten in journal impact factor manipulation

How will you judge me if not by impact factor? Nature

Acquisition of the Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property and Science business by Onex and Baring Asia completed (Press release)

Indexing for a new journal: Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis

The impact factor of a journal is a poor measure of the clinical relevance of its papers

Gender gap in women authors is not worse during COVID-19 pandemic: Results from Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in publishing: Calling thrombosis and hemostasis journals to action in support of women

Illustrated review article: A new format for disseminating scientific progress

Polyphosphate in thrombosis, hemostasis, and inflammation

Fibrinogen and fibrin: An illustrated review