Pakistani journals and the impact factor: Where are we standing right now

Abstract

Objective: To summarizes the performance of Pakistani journals in terms of their Impact Factor. Methodology: Pakistani journals were analyzed for their impact factor (IF), citations and publications from 2000-2009. Journal Citation Reports (JCR) published by Thomson Reuter was used to retrieve the data electronically. All tables and graphical presentations were generated by using either Minitab version-10 or MS-Excel for Macintosh. Results: Total seven journals have their IF in the year 2009. Only two Pakistani Bio-medical journals have an international impact factor listed by JCR. The highest impact factor of any Pakistani journal is 0.825 in 2009 of Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In the year 2009, Journal of College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (JCPSP) and Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences (PJMS) were included in the list of IF journals for the very first time after 13 and 26 years of their first publication respectively. The IF of JCPSP is 0.554 and PJMS is 0.203 for the year of 2009. Conclusion: There is a very small contribution by Pakistani journals in terms of ISI indexation. Basic sciences journal continues to overshadow in term of ISI indexation with highest impact factor of 0.825 by Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.