Impact simply reflects the ability of journals and editors to attract the best papers available (E.Garfield, Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia) Volker Fendrich, MD Editor Assistant, BJS

Impact factor Citations to recent articles 1784 = ( BJS 2006 ) Number of recent articles 436 Ability to predict citations is weak (Callaham JAMA 2002) The IF of the publishing journal determines the number of citations of the article (Callaham JAMA 2002)

Relationship between IF and the level of non-citation within surgical journals Weale et al. BMC Med Res Methodol % of articles account for 50% of citations

Aims What makes highly cited papers special? Are there specific differences to Ann Surg? Is there a way to increase the IF of BJS?

The 50 top cited papers vs the 50 bottom cited (BJS ) Top citedBottom cited Type of article17 reviews 5 RCTs 28 original articles 0 reviews 2 RCTs 48 original articles Country of origin22 Countries (Netherlands 8, Scotland 7) 17 Countries (England 17) Discipline of first authour98% surgeons Average citations since publication Total citations since publication Cited in journals with higher IF (Ann Surg) 556 (127)3 (1) Cited in journals with lower IF Citations in BJS (% of all)250 (6.2%)5 (12.8%)

Topic: TOP or FLOP? Complications of radiofrequency coagulation of liver tumours Intra-anal and rectal application of L-erythro methoxamine gel increases anal resting pressure in healthy volunteers Randomized clinical trial of virtual reality simulation for laparoscopic skills training Operative mortality after colorectal resection in the Netherlands Value of POSSUM physiology scoring to assess outcome after intra-arterial thrombolysis for acute leg ischaemia Prognostic significance of the circumferential resection margin following total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer

Topic: Top or flop? Complications of radiofrequency coagulation of liver tumours Intra-anal and rectal application of L-erythro methoxamine gel increases anal resting pressure in healthy volunteers Randomized clinical trial of virtual reality simulation for laparoscopic skills training Operative mortality after colorectal resection in the Netherlands Value of POSSUM physiology scoring to assess outcome after intra-arterial thrombolysis for acute leg ischaemia Prognostic significance of the circumferential resection margin following total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer

The competitors

Self Citations 2004 Self Citations 2005 Ann Surg4.1%7.8% BJS5.7%5.0%

Top 20 reviews 2004/05570 total citations555 total citations Impact factor Top 20 reviews Main topicsTotally mixed Top 20 articles 2004/05879 total citations1911 total citations Impact factor Top 20 articles Main topicsColorectal cancer (9/20) Liver metastases (8/20) What makes the difference?

Rising influence of China? Chinese IF 2006: 3.23 ( : 13 articles, 42 citations) Chinese IF 2006: 3.25 ( : 12 articles, 39 citations) Note: Nearly 50% of all publications from Poon et al. University of Hong Kong

How to increase the IF? Self citations – unethical? (Sevinc 2004) Online availability (Murali et al 2004) Online survey to ask for desired topics Select authors on the basis of past performance