September 2007

The journal impact factor (IF) is widely used but surrounded by considerable controversy. It is important to restrict it to only its appropriate use. The IF can reasonably be useful for evaluating a journal, but even then can be influenced by many factors such as the number of review papers, letters or other types of material published, variations between disciplines, and various biases. The extent to which the IF is appropriate for the evaluation of the quality of an individual, department or institution however, is undoubtedly highly debatable.