Impact factor: use and abuse.

Extracted from text ... 5 A bibliometric quantitative parameter, termed the impact factor (IF), evolved from the 1961 Science Citation Index (SCI) and its by-product, the Journal Citation Reports (JCR).1 The factor is derived from the total number of citations received from a particular journal in a specific year, divided by the number of papers published in that journal in the previous two years. The IF would be an indicator of reader interest in the journal. It was intended as a useful tool for comparing the performance of different journals. Mainly, it was meant to facilitate the assessment of journals for acquisition by ..