The Impact of the Impact Factor

Johannes Czernin

Johannes Czernin

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) has again been ranked among the top medical imaging journals worldwide, according to new data released in the 2016 Journal Citation Reports published by Clarivate Analytics. JNM’s Journal Impact Factor went up from 5.849 (2015) to 6.646 (2016). The Journal Impact Factor also went up for European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (EJNMMI), to 7.277. EJNMMI and JNM are now ranked numbers 3 and 5, respectively, among the 125 journals included in the “Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and Medical Imaging” category. This is great news for the field of molecular imaging and therapy, as the Journal Impact Factor of both the American and the European journals is now approaching that of Radiology (Fig. 1A).

There is nothing better than competition, and to my friends in Europe I say, “Bring it on, and keep bringing it on!” Let’s have some fun with this, as the challenge will make both journals better. We will, of course, double and triple our efforts to regain the number 1 position in the “Nuclear Medicine” category. We will increase our creativity, generate excitement by fostering and supporting intense discussions, and continue to publish basic science, translational, and clinical research of the highest quality.

FIGURE 1.

The top 5 journals in the “Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and Medical Imaging” category of Journal Citation Reports: 2015 and 2016 Journal Impact Factor (A), number of citations in 2016 (B), and 5-year average Journal Impact Factor (C).

We will remain forward-looking as, together with the EJNMMI, we continue to shape the future of molecular imaging.

Among nuclear medicine journals, JNM remained, in 2016, the one with the highest number of citations (24,977; Fig. 1B), the highest 5-year average Journal Impact Factor (6.459; Fig. 1C), the highest number of citable articles (329), and the highest Article Influence Score (1.842).

Let’s use JNM and EJNMMI to drive our field toward becoming a strong and independent discipline. Let’s use the renewed energy that was evident at the SNMMI 2017 Annual Meeting in Denver to aggressively work on translating novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches into the clinic. Let’s focus on large-scale clinical trials and how to fund them. Let’s convince regulatory agencies to support what we’re doing by educating them about the dramatic benefits patients can gain from our diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. And finally, let’s keep in mind that it’s our impact on patient outcome that will define whether our contributions are relevant.