Declining impact factor of radiologic journals: a matter for debate

OBJECTIVE. As reported in the 2011 Journal Citation Reports, despite an increase of the impact factor (IF) for 54% of all journals, only 39% of imaging journals experienced an IF increase. Of the 41 imaging journals with an IF of higher than 2.0, only 17 obtained a higher IF value in 2011 than in 2010 and the IF of most key international imaging journals decreased. How to manage and contrast this decline in IF is still a challenge for the radiologic community all over the world. CONCLUSION. Radiologic journals may try to increase their IF by soliciting important articles, such as meta-analyses, cost-effective analyses, and guidelines, that are frequently published in high-IF clinical journals, and encouraging nonradiologists to submit relevant radiologic-related clinical articles.