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The impact of academic research cannot be defined by any single metric. As a DORA signatory, BMJ believes that the journal impact factor (JIF) is best shared alongside other metrics that can help an author decide where to publish.
These include Citescore, Total Altmetric mentions, and time to first decision and are made available on our journal sites and demonstrate how BMJ is meeting research authors’ needs for timely publication, reach and influence.
In the 2021 Journal Citation Report, the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery took first place in the Neuroimaging category, and three BMJ journals received their first impact factor, taking BMJ’s Journal Impact Factors (JIF) indexed total to 41 journals:
Four of our titles received their first Citescore, taking our total to 63:
And, 32 of our indexed journals (84%) observed an increase in JIF, with Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (27.973) and Gut (31.793) seeing increases above 8 points.
Finally, our flagship journal The BMJ’s JIF increased from 39.890 in 2020 to 93.333, moving it into fourth place in the Medicine, General and Internal ranks.
The combined effects of the covid pandemic with a small change in the calculation method have led to the soaring impact factors announced for many journals in June 2022. The BMJ, for instance, surged from 39.890 in 2020 to 93.333 in 2021. Here’s why:
1) The JIF calculation now includes all the citations from so-called early-access content, (increasing the numerator without adding to the denominator of the IF calculation) and
2) The sudden appearance of covid-19 created an entirely new, extremely urgent field of study which led to more articles being published overall, and more of those articles being highly cited. Journals in relevant fields like general medicine, public health, and infectious diseases, therefore, saw significant growth in their denominator, but an even greater growth in their numerator (Overall, this year’s JIF calculations contained over 25% more articles and citations than the prior year). Clarivate explains the effect that Impact Factors have seen this year in more detail here.
In 2013, BMJ signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). We did this to show our support for using various measures and metrics to portray journals’ impact; moving away from the Impact Factor as a single measure.
Monitoring the metrics: speed, impact and reach of the research we publish.
Our metrics are displayed (where available) on all our journals’ platforms.
For some useful information and resources, please see the BMJ Author Hub
Learn about how we can help to get your research published, discovered and cited
Explore available resources to make the most of your BMJ open access agreements
Find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about open access