Research Quality and Newsworthiness of Published Articles are Partial Predictors of Journal Impact Factors. A Review of: Lokker, C., Haynes, R. B., Chu, R., McKibbon, K. A., Wilczynski, N. L., & Walter, S. D. (2012). How well are journal and clinical article characteristics associated with the journal impact factor?A retrospective cohort study. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 100(1), 28-33. doi:10.3163/1536-5050.100.1.006

• Main Author: Jason Martin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta 2012-09-01
• Series: Evidence Based Library and Information Practice
• Subjects: journal impact factors; citation metrics
• Online Access: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/17156/14274
• ISSN: 1715-720X

<b>Objective</b> – Determine what characteristics ofa journal’s published articles can be used topredict the journal impact factor (JIF).<br><b>Design</b> – A retrospective cohort study.<br><b>Setting</b> – The researchers are located atMcMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,Canada.<br><b>Subjects</b> – The sample consisted of 1,267clinical research articles from 103 evidencebased and clinical journals which werepublished in 2005 and indexed in theMcMaster University Premium LiteratUreService (PLUS) database and those samejournals’ JIF from 2007.<br><b>Method</b> – The articles were divided 60:40 intoa derivation set (760 articles and 99 journals)and a validation set (507 articles and 88journals). Ten variables which could influenceJIF were developed and a multiple linearregression was run on the derivation set andthen applied to the validation set.<br><b>Main Results</b> – The four variables found to besignificant were the number of databaseswhich indexed the journal, the number ofauthors, the quality of research, and the“newsworthiness” of the journal’s publishedarticles. <br><b>Conclusion</b> – The quality of research and newsworthiness at time of publication of a journal’s articles can predict the journal impact factor with 60% accuracy.