Abstract

GONZALEZ DELGADO, Natalia. Impact Factor. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2010, vol.39, n.1, pp.190-202. ISSN 0034-7450.

Introduction: The evaluation of medical and scientific journals during the past 80 years has been an important tendency in research. During this time evaluation methods have changed, arriving to what is known today as the impact factor. Objective: To show the impact factor's history, its definition and its role within the field of research, as well as the controversy it has generated in relation to its use vs. abuse. Method: Narrative review. Development: The impact factor was created in 1960 by Irving H. Sher and Eugene Garfield, and is published annually in the Journal of Citation Report (JCR) of the Thomson Reuters Institute, which offers a range of tools for its assessment. It is a measure of the average number of times published papers are cited up to two years after publication. Thus the impact factor 2009 for a journal is equal to A/B, where A is the number of times articles published in 2007- 2008 were cited in indexed journals during 2009, and B the number of articles published in 2007-2008

Keywords : Journal impact factor; periodicals.

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