EDITORIAL NOTE A closer look at the Impact Factor (JCR 2012): problems, concerns and actions needed

The present editorial is a little bit different from the ones regularly published in the Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias (AABC). Instead of focusing on contributions of the current issue as we normally do (e.g., Kellner 2011), here we report a situation that occurred with the AABC in 2012 and that might be of general interest for editors and anyone else that uses bibliometric parameters to evaluate scientific performance (as CNPq, CAPES and Graduate Programs do in Brazil), since it is directly related to the Impact Factor (IF), Journal Citation Reports ® (JCR) by Thomson Reuters JCR and the Web of Knowledge SM (WoS). We do not intend to discuss the JCR or the importance of the IF and all the useful data published about each journal indexed in the JCR. However, in the light of the present case, we would like to point out that problems with the JCR do exist, that they are serious and that new actions and measures should be taken in order to mitigate the resulting complications.