A thank you to Matthew Cockerill for noting that there are 17, not 12, BMC journals with an impact factor above 3.0.  Please see Matthew’s full comment under the 26 June 2008 posting.

Based on the 2007 Journal Citation Reports a number of open access journals published by BioMed Central have shown an increase in the impact factor ranking with eight journals above 4.0 and 12 with a ranking greater than 3.0.  For the full report: BioMed Central Blog, June 19, 2008.

The impact factor is defined by Journal Citation Reports (JCR) as the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past two years have been cited in the JCR year. An impact factor of 1.0 means that on average, the articles published one or two years ago have been cited one time. An impact factor of 2.5 means that on average, the articles published one or two years ago have been cited two and a half times. Citing articles may be from the same journal; most citing articles are from different journals.  For more information on JCR: Thomson Reuters JCR.

For a journal to have an impact factor ranking in JCR it must be tracked by Thomson Reuters for three years. Many of the BMC journals are new to the field and do not yet have impact factor rankings. For more information on the BMC journals and their status on Impact Factor ranking: BMC list.

JCR just announced that the 2007 data for the Sciences and Social Sciences editions is now available. JCR is a tool that examines the impact factor of a journal using citation data from over 9,000 journals, and published meeting proceedings from more than 3,300 publishers in 60 countries.

JCR  (access available to subscribed users or affiliates)

JCR Recorded Training Session

JCR FAQS

Other tools for assessing the impact of journals

The International Mathematical Union just released a Citation Statistics Report that outlines the use of citations in assessing research quality.

Among the report’s key findings:

1.  Statistics are not more accurate when they are improperly used; statistics can mislead when they are misused or misunderstood.

2. The objectivity of citations is illusory because the meaning of citations is not well-understood. A citation’s meaning can be very far from “impact.”

3. While having a single number to judge quality is indeed simple, it can lead to a shallow under-standing of something as complicated as research. Numbers are not inherently superior to sound judgments.

If you are a FY2008 NIH-funded author and submitted a publication to PubMed Central (PMC) in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy, don’t forget to note the PMC reference number (PMCID) if you cite the work in any NIH progress reports, applications or proposals.

Not sure about where to find or how to cite the PMCID? Check out our guidance document, How to Locate and Cite the PMCID.

The World Intellectual Property Organization recently issued a guide titled “Understanding Copyright and Related Rights.” The guide is intended to “provide an introduction for non-specialists or newcomers to the subject of copyright and related rights.”

Have a question about the NIH Public Access Policy? Check the following resources:

NIH FAQs related to the NIH Public Access Policy. 

WU FAQs related to the NIH Public Access Policy.

There are about 350 journals that have worked out an agreement with NIH and PubMed Central (PMC) to deposit NIH-funded publications to PMC on behalf of NIH-funded authors. According to NIH, no further action is required by authors who publish in one of these journals in order to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy except to cite the PMCID in future NIH proposals, applications and progress reports as of 25 May 2008.

However, there are three journals on this list that charge authors for an “uploading fee” if they are not members of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the society that publishes these journals. The three journals are:

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Journal of Lipid Research

Molecular and Cellular Proteomics: MCP

There is no fee for ASBMB members but if you are a non-member and publish in one of these journals, the fee is $50.00. According to ASBMB:

“This service will be free for ASBMB members and will cost $50 for non-members. The $50 fee covers the cost to the publisher to tag and upload high resolution figures and supply supplemental data from our vendors to PubMed Central.” http://www.jbc.org/misc/Publishing_Options.shtml 

There may be more journals on the NIH list of journals that charge an upload fee. Please submit a comment if you know of other journals that do. 

Norka Ruiz Bravo, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research, recently sent an email to NIH principal investigators reminding them of the NIH Public Access Policy. One part of the email that may be of interest:

“If you publish through a journal listed under http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm, there might be a slight delay in assignment of a PMCID. That is okay. We have signed agreements with these journals that allow NIH to resolve submission with them without your involvement. To facilitate your Program Officer’s job, we ask that you indicate ‘PMC Journal- In Process’ until the PMCID is available. “

To learn more the PMCID, consult “How to Locate and Cite the PMCID.”

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Committee on Research Integrity and Publication Practices has prepared a guidelines document, Guidelines for the Responsible Conduct of Research: Ethics and the Publication Process. 

“The responsible conduct of research - from the earliest stages of a project and onward - has a direct bearing not only on the quality of any resulting article but also on ethical issues that arise during the publication process. These guidelines are intended to help researchers avoid ethical pitfalls through all phases of the research and publication process.”