This year, in an update to Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports (JCR), all Web of Science Core Collection journals have been given a Journal Impact Factor (JIF). Previously, this privilege was limited to journals in their Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases. Obstetric Medicine is indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) database, which enables visibility of high-quality, peer-reviewed publications even with limited circulation.
What is the “Journal Impact Factor”? JIF is defined as the citations in the JCR year to items published in the journal in the previous two years, divided by the total number of citable items (comprising articles and reviews) published in the journal in the previous two years. 1 The calculation of JIF uses as the denominator research and review articles (but not letters or meeting abstracts). For the current JCR year (2022) the Obstetric Medicine IF is 0.7, derived from 103 citations in 2022 from 143 citable items in 2020 to 2021. With the rise in the number of journals published (associated also with some questionable publishing practices), objective metrics are important to identify a journal's reputation.
The JIF was designed to create a generalised, journal-level metric showing only a specific type of scholarly use in a single year. While this is important, it may not fully reflect the importance and impact of a journal on the scientific/medical community it serves. As an example, Obstetric Medicine continues to routinely publish interesting case reports, unlike many other journals today. We feel that unusual occurrences in disorders in pregnancy are important information to share. However, case reports are unlikely to be cited (but contribute to the denominator), producing a negative effect on the JIF. Our journal also endeavours to accept articles from a broad spectrum of international authors. We have an international readership and we can all learn from experiences in other medical environments, although some of these articles are not highly cited. For the period 2020/2021, the majority of publications were from the UK (28%), Australia (19%), Canada (17%), India (13%) and USA (8%), but we also published articles from Lebanon, Colombia, South Africa, Norway, Cyprus, Spain, Mexico and Japan.
Our most cited articles during this 2020/2021 period highlight the diverse nature of publications in the journal. The top three include a systematic review of the offspring health outcomes of women with antenatal depression, 2 a review on asthma in pregnancy, 3 and a review on the potential maternal health consequences of cellular fetal microchimerism. 4 Our most highly cited research articles covered fertility in women with psoriasis, and pregnancy-related inappropriate sinus tachycardia. In the current issue we feature research articles on pregnancy outcomes in autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease, 5 a systematic review of maternal and fetal outcomes in patients with non-cirrhotic portal hypertension in pregnancy, 6 and a cohort study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perinatal mental health screening, illness and pregnancy outcomes. 7
Having hoped for an impact factor for a long time, the next question for us as a journal is whether this now changes anything about our approach to future articles or issues. Should this influence our choice of article or focus of the journal? Should we be aspiring to a higher impact factor and changing our behaviour in light of this aim, or simply enjoy a gradual increase in citations and impact factor as our journal develops in future years? Will the presence of an impact factor increase the submissions? We were certainly aware of colleagues whose main reservation about submission was the lack of an impact factor, and therefore published elsewhere instead.
The journal is continuing to go from strength to strength, and this impact factor is another marker of this development. We remain grateful for the work of our Editorial predecessors, and are excited for the future of the journal and being able to share this with our ever-increasing readership.
Footnotes
ORCID iDs: Stephen E Lapinsky https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6930-0306
Charlotte J Frise https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7650-5780
References
- 1.Clarivate. Journal Citation Reports: Reference Guide, June 2022. Available at: https://clarivate.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2022/06/JCR-2022-Reference-Guide.pdf
- 2.Smith A, Twynstra J, Seabrook JA. Antenatal depression and offspring health outcomes. Obstet Med 2020; 13: 55–61. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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