2007 update for impact factors in integrative and complementary medicine journals.

The Journal Citation Report (JCR) is published annually by Thomson Scientific. The JCR includes a number of indices that have been previously described. The JCR is released in July of each year and reflects the previous year's data. Thus at the same time this publication circulated a report up to and including 2006, the 2007 JCR data was released. This largely reflects the lag phase between manuscript submission and publication. A long lag phase is typical in the health disciplines and is highlighted by the low immediacy index characteristic of journals in the integrative and complementary medicine category. This is a brief summary providing an update on the 2007 JCR data to provide adjunctive reading for the previously published JCR review.

The most significant variation between 2006 and 2007 JCR data is that the category 'integrative and complementary medicine' has been expanded from 10 to 12 journals. The inclusion of Alternative Medicine Review and Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine is a strong boost to overall performance of the category (table 1) with rankings of first and second for impact factor within the category.

These higher impact factors combined with a relative balance between increases and decreases amongst the remaining 10 journals means the category's performance improved from a median impact factor of 1.011 (rank 99/172) in 2006 to 1.236 (rank 84/172) in 2007.

The immediacy indices for integrative and complementary medicine journals in 2006 and 2007 provide a strong indication that Forschende Komplementar-medizin & Klassische Naturheilkunde Nat and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine have the most immediate impact in industry practice and research (data available).

Currie G, Wheat J. 2008. Impact factors in integrative and complementary medicine journals. Aust J Med Herbalism 20: 2;64-70.

Geoffrey M Currie, Janelle M Wheat

School of Dentistry and Health Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wa gga, Australia.

Table 1
Summary of impact factor ratings for integrative and complementary
medicine journals since 2002. The highest rating journal each year is
highlighted in bold.

Abbreviated            2002    2003    2004    2005    2006    2007
Journal Title          IF      IF      IF      IF      IF      IF

Altern Med Rev                                                 3.111
Evid-Based Compl Alt                                           2.535
J Ethnopharmacol       1.188   1.269   1.420   1.554   1.625   2.049
Altern Ther Health M   0.920   1.145   0.971   1.300   1.429   1.769
Forsch Komp Klas Nat   0.646   0.308   0.485   1.143   1.417   1.185
Complement Ther Med    1.507   1.194   1.317   1.362   1.279   1.100
J Altern Complem Med   1.261   0.979   1.401   1.051   1.104   1.526
J Manip Physiol Ther   1.041   0.950   0.786   0.758   0.918   0.725
Am J Chinese Med       0.738   0.627   0.593   0.743   0.710   1.122
Altex-Altern Tierexp   0.533   0.349   0.446   0.667   0.640   1.286
Acupuncture Electro    0.393   0.600   0.341   0.132   0.615   0.418
Explore--NY            --      --      --      --      0.520   0.859