The Impact Factor

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a number. It measures how often the average paper in a journal is cited.

• Nature and NEJM have high impact factors.
• Niche journals have low ones.

The Flaw

The JIF is an average. But citations follow a "power law." A few blockbuster papers get thousands of citations. Most papers get zero.

Publishing in a high-impact journal does not mean your paper is good. It just means it is sitting next to a good paper.

The Gaming

Editors game the system.

• They publish "Review Articles" (which get cited a lot) to boost their score.
• They pressure authors to cite other papers in the same journal ("Coercive Citation").
• They reject solid, boring science because it won't go viral.

The Diagnosis

Do not judge a paper by the cover of the journal. A bad paper in Nature is still a bad paper. A great paper in a small journal is still great.

Read the paper, not the label.