The impact factor (IF) in the evaluation of biomedical journals

Abstract

The evaluation of scientific production is realized through bibliometric indices. One of them is the Impact Factor, based on the count of citations that a scientific journal receives in a year or period. It is published in SCI-JCR, that includes more than 7.000 scientific magazines written in English, and that doesn't include most of Latin American journals. Therefore, it's not possible to calculate the Impact Factor for most of Latin American publications, which makes convenient the creation of an indicator of their influence on health science. This article includes the definition, calculation, advantages and disadvantages of the Impact Factor and other desired standards for the quality of the publications that may contribute to a better evaluation of medical journals.