Brain Pathology Impact Factor on the Rise

Dear Reader,

It is my great pleasure to inform you that the recent impact factors (IF) published by the Journal Citation Reports show an increase for Brain Pathology from the 2005 value of 4.041 to 5.274 in 2006, placing us third among 65 Pathology journals, eighth among 146 Clinical Neurology journals, and twenty‐fourth among 199 Neuroscience journals (http://portal.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi). As much as I would love to take credit for this upward trend, it of course reflects citations for articles published in 2004 and 2005; as such, the kudos go to our prior chief editor, Harry Vinters, as well as the many outstanding authors, reviewers and editorial staff that contributed to the final product of excellence. I believe this trend is very likely to continue or at least stabilize to an IF above five, given recent initiatives that include: (i) a completely electronic submission and review system with efficient turnaround times, (ii) a larger publisher with attractive consortial library packages and aggressive marketing to enhance the readership, (iii) an expanded editorial staff with eminent senior editors proficient in all the major subspecialties of Neuropathology, and (iv) an open access publication option for authors. In fact, I have already noticed an increase in manuscript submissions, coming from a healthy range of investigators throughout the globe, a gratifying and appropriate constituency for the official journal of the International Society of Neuropathology. At the same time that we celebrate this most recent accomplishment however, I cannot resist the opportunity to briefly review a few of the positives vs. negatives and the utilities vs. abuses of the journal IF overall, focusing particularly on the history of the IF in Brain Pathology. For a more detailed coverage of this topic, the interested reader is referred to the insightful comments of one of our prior chief editors, Clayton Wiley (3).

If one plots out the IF of Brain Pathology since it was first reported in 1994 (Figure 1), one may note a striking resemblance to the Swiss Alps (for our European colleagues) or the Rocky mountains (for our North American members). Although the gut reaction is that such erratic jumps reflect “instability”, in fact, there are a number of simple explanations, with the enviable IF figures between 4 and 8 for nearly our entire history nonetheless putting us “consistently” among the highest ranked journals within our field. In reflecting upon the history of our journal, there are several considerations “impacting” the IF as outlined below.

Figure 1.

The impact factors (IF) for Brain Pathology plotted over time from 1994 to 2006.

First and perhaps foremost is the limited number of articles published in our quarterly journal. As such, relatively small differences in the number of times each article is cited can lead to surprisingly large fluctuations in the IF from one year to the next. For example, the 2006 IF of 5.274 was calculated as the ratio of all 559 citations (numerator) in the scientific literature referencing the total of 106 articles (denominator) published in Brain Pathology from 2004 to 2005. In comparison, the 2005 IF of 4.041 reflected 497 citations of 123 articles in 2003 and 2004. The relatively short 2‐year window of opportunity also means that rare disorders and subject matters that evolve more slowly are less likely to contribute to the IF as much as “hot topics” that are constantly changing. Particularly illustrative examples of this pitfall are Einstein’s theory of relativity, Watson and Crick’s theory of the double helix, and the 1983 papers identifying Helicobacter in gastric ulcers (1). These studies would all be considered utter failures if judged by the IF alone, as in each case, it took over 2 years for the rest of the world to realize or accept the remarkable implications of these papers. As such, they were not cited during the arbitrarily set 2‐year window. What are possible “solutions” (although one could argue that there isn’t really a problem) for Brain Pathology? As highlighted in the January “Dear Reader” section (2), one of our long‐term goals is to switch from quarterly to bimonthly publications. This would lead to more articles, greater citation opportunities because of increased publication frequency, and smaller fluctuations in the IF. However, we have not yet reached the number of high‐quality submissions to warrant such a shift without loss of quality (ie, please keep sending your best papers!). In terms of rare and slowly evolving topics we will continue to publish these as they remain of interest to the readership and we have not, nor will we ever become slaves to the IF as the only guiding force for Brain Pathology publications.

Another factor to consider in the IF trends of Brain Pathology is that not all articles or categories are created equal. For example, the early years of the journal consisted almost entirely of review articles and as these are often copiously cited, the IF reached some remarkably high peaks (Figure 1). In fact, Paul Kleihues deserves plenty of credit for soliciting such high‐quality reviews from the very beginning, literally launching the journal onto the scientific scene at its very inception! Over time of course, the journal expanded to include more original scientific papers, historical reviews and cases of the month. Not surprisingly, the latter are rarely cited, given that they are essentially illustrations or interesting diagnostic unknowns. Given that these cases represented 20% of the “articles” published by Brain Pathology in recent years, this partly accounted for some of our “IF valleys” (Figure 1). Appropriately, Harry Vinters and Ron Hamilton converted the cases of the month to the category of correspondence in 2005. For those looking carefully at the IF statistics, this explains why only 47 articles were included in the year 2005, as compared with 59 in 2004. As the few citations to these cases still get counted in the numerator but not the denominator, this simple change likely enhanced our most recent IF and if so, could play an even greater role next year, as neither 2005 nor 2006 will include cases of the month in the denominator. In fact, the readers may have noticed that there have recently been two cases published per month. This reflects the large number of excellent cases submitted to Dr Hamilton and the desire to reduce the publication turnaround times for them, particularly now that there are no longer any IF concerns for this category.

Although the IF represents a well meaning and generally useful way to compare journals, the many biases and pitfalls of this system have long been recognized, with only a few of these mentioned above. Given the unavoidable imperfections of this system, the increasing use (or abuse) of these IFs in mathematical formulas to determine academic promotions and funding allocations is quite disturbing and this seems to be particularly true in some centers in Europe and Asia. I think that the message to Brain Pathology is that to some extent, we are forced to play the IF game, along with all other medical and scientific journals. However, I would again stress that the essential mission of our journal has never been to increase the IF, but essentially remains the same as that originally stated by Paul Kleihues in the first issue: “that Brain Pathology should become the reading matter of choice for all those interested in diseases of the nervous system, irrespective of whether or not they are practicing neuropathologists.” I am confident that if we continue to succeed in this endeavor, a high IF will naturally follow.

President

Bernardino Ghetti, M.D.
Distinguished Professor Director
Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center
Indiana University School of Medicine
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
635 Barnhill Drive, MS A138
Indianapolis, IN 46202
USA
Tel.: (001) 317 274 7818
Fax: (001) 317 274 4882
E‐mail: bghetti@iupui.edu

Secretary General

Prof Seth Love
Department of Neuropathology
Institute of Clinical Neurosciences
Frenchay Hospital
Bristol BS16 1LE
United Kingdom
Tel.: (+44) 0 117 975 3823
Fax: (+44) 0 117 975 3760
E‐mail: seth.love@bris.ac.uk

Treasurer

Dr Marcus Tolnay
Neuropathology, Institute of Pathology
Schonbeinstrasse 40
CH‐4003 Basel
Switzerland
Tel.: (+41) 61 265 2896
Fax: (+41) 61 265 3194
E‐mail: mtolnay@uhbs.ch

Project Secretary

Leila Chimelli
Servico de Anatomia Patologica
Hospital Universitario‐UFRJ
Ilha do Fundao‐Rio de Janeiro, RJ
CEP 21941‐590
Brazil
Tel.: (+55) 21 2562 2450
Fax: (+55) 21 2562 2450
E‐mail: chimelli@hucff.ufrj.br