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The impact of the F1000 Factor

Impact factors are often used to assess the quality of a research article in the journal in which it appears. However, this is a highly flawed system, as not every article in a high impact journal is valuable and, more to the point, not every valuable article is published in a high-impact journal.

In an editorial published in Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology in April earlier this year {1}, Peter Lipsky, head of our 'Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology' Faculty, writes that "The IF [impact factor] has ...morphed into an institutionalised means of ranking the quality of scientific journals and, by implication, the individual articles published within them ...and has been likened to a popularity contest". He also says " ...journals can manipulate their content to improve their IF" and "The IF is neither a surrogate for quality, nor an estimate of the influence of an article on clinical practice".

This is where F1000 Medicine steps in. As well as giving you expert opinion and clinical applicability, each article also receives a numerical rating - the F1000 Factor - irrespective of what journal it is from.

The F1000 Factor is generated individually for each article and incorporates both the rating it receives and the number of Faculty Members who have evaluated it. Over a third of the articles which are awarded the top 'Exceptional' rating by our members are expected to be from journals other than the NEJM, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, the Lancet and the BMJ. Our 'Hidden Jewels' feature demonstrates this by highlighting valuable articles published only in less widely read journals.

With so many research articles being published, and so many journals to read, F1000 Medicine helps you to focus on only the best.

{1} Lipsky, Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology 2007, 3:189 [PMID:17396104].

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Posted by Adie Chan on Friday Dec 21, 2007, Category: Impact factor versus... | Permalink