452991
Clinical Nursing Research XX(X)Cacchione © The Author(s) 2011
CNR21310.1177/1054773812452991
Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Cacchione Clinical Nursing Research
Editorial
Clinical Nursing Research Recognized by Thomson Reuters with its First Impact Factor
Clinical Nursing Research 21(4) 387–389 © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1054773812464133 http://cnr.sagepub.com
Pamela Z. Cacchione, PhD, CRNP, BC1 We are pleased to announce that after publishing Clinical Nursing Research (CNR) for 20 years, our first Volume was in February of 1992, CNR has received its first Impact Factor (Thomas Reuters, 2012). This is a significant step in recognition of the nursing research published in CNR and recognition that a quarterly journal focusing on clinical nursing research is influential. As the Editor of CNR for the last five years, this has been a goal to have CNR listed among the approximately 30% of all journals indexed in the Journal Citation Reports®. This isn’t the only measure of the quality of a journal but there are some advantages to the journal as well as the authors who publish in ranked journals. Examples include: many academic institutions expect their faculty to publish in ranked journals; other institutions may use the Impact Factor as an assessment of a faculty member’s performance for promotion, tenure or even funding decisions (Oerman, 2012); librarians may also consider a journal’s rank when making subscription decisions (Thomson Reuters, 2012). Impact Factors have a history dating back to the 1950’s when Eugene Garfield proposed the Science Citations Index (Garfield, 2006). The Impact factor came into use in the 1960s as a means of selecting journals to be indexed in the Science Citation Index (Garfield, 2006). This overall index is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year (Thomson Reuters, 2012). Nursing journal’s presence in the Science Citations Index has been steadily growing. In 2004, here were only 35 nursing journals listed in this index. In 2012, there are at 1
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Corresponding Author: Pamela Z. Cacchione, PhD, CRNP, BC, University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing, 418 Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Email:
[email protected]
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least 95 journals listed for the 2011 Journal Citation Reports® (Polit & Northam, 2011). The Journal Impact Factors are numerical values calculated by the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past 2 years have been cited in the Journal Citation Report year. These include only citations appearing in ranked journals and only citable articles published in the previous two years. None publishable articles include commentaries, letters, interviews, tributes book reviews, obituaries and perspectives (Garfield, 2006). The CNR Impact Factor is 0.881 ranked 51 out of 97 in Nursing Science and 48 out of 95 in Nursing Social Science; CNR has been recognized as a quality nursing research journal for the first time. There is room for growth and increased influence. Over the next few years, CNR will be evaluated using the 5-year impact factor that is calculated to the two year impact but using the five previous years instead of just two. Other opportunities for CNR include new measures added to the Journal Citation Reports®. One is having an Eigen factor Score and the other is an Article Influence Score. The Eigen factor was designed to capture quality as well as quantity of citations. The Article Influence Score was designed to measure influence per article after the first five years of the articles publication (Polit & Northam). These will be new measures of quality to work towards in the future. When authors chose where to publish their manuscript it may be important to consider a journal’s impact factor particularly, if publishing in a journal with an impact factor is necessary for their career. However, there is some controversy on the value of Journal Impact Factors. For example, it is possible for one well cited article to influence the journals ranking rather than multiple manuscripts having moderate citations (Polit & Northam, 2011). Journals that publish review articles will often have higher impact factors (Oermann, 2012). A practice has been reported that reviewers will suggest specific article citations be added to a manuscript to support the science but this practice also raises the citations of the referenced manuscript. This was never the intent of the Science Citations Index. It was meant as one indicator of quality and a proxy measure of the importance of the journal in the field. Other measures of quality include a journals reputation, time to publication, readership, recommendations from colleagues, copyright restrictions and open access (Olson, 2011). One that rings true to me is a recommendation from a colleague. During my post doctoral fellowship, I was advised to submit a manuscript to Clinical Nursing Research in 2001. This started my ongoing relationship with CNR, first as an Author and then as Editor. So, I invite you on this journey with me toward the ongoing recognition of CNR as an influential nursing research journal. I look forward to your submissions and your ongoing relationship with CNR.
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Cacchione References
Garfield, E. (2006). The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. Journal of the American Medical Association, 295, 90-93. Oerman, M. H. (2012). Editorial: Impact factors and clinical specialty nursing journals. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21, 299-300. Olson, C. A. (2011). Evaluating the Quality of a Journal: JCEHP’s 2010 Impact Factor. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 31(4), 223-224. Polit, D. R., & Northam, S. (2011). Impact factors in nursing journals. Nursing Outlook, 59(2011), 18-28. Ragazzi, J. J., & Aytac, S. (2008). Author perception of journal quality. Scholes, J. (2012). Publication in whose interests? Nursing in Critical Care, 17(1), 3-6. Thomson Reuters. (2012). 2011 Journal Citation Reports® Accessed at http://thomsonreuters.com/
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