Most BMC journal impact factors increase

Matthew Cockerill, New and improved impact factors for BioMed Central journals in the 2008 JCR, BioMed Central Blog, June 24, 2009.

The latest edition of Thomson Reuter's Journal Citation Reports has just been released, with official Impact Factors for a total of 58 BioMed Central journals [Note: 59 to my count]. Impact factors are by no means a perfect quality metric, but these journal citation data provide strong evidence of the growing success of BioMed Central's open access journal portfolio.

Highlights include:

• Impressive initial Impact Factors for two key titles in the BMC series: BMC Medicine and BMC Systems Biology
• Initial Impact Factor for Nutrition & Metabolism, placing it in the top 25% of the NUTRITION & DIETETICS category ...
• An increased Impact Factor for BMC Bioinformatics, now ranked #3 of 28 in MATHEMATICAL & COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY ...
• An increased Impact Factor of Malaria Journal. The TROPICAL MEDICINE category now has open access journals in both the #1 and #2 spots. ...
• A significantly increased Impact Factor for Critical Care, ranked #4 of 21 in CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE. ...

Of the 59 IFs for BMC journals listed in the post, 12 are new, 29 are improved, and 18 are not improved.