The Impact Factor in non-English-speaking countries

Challenges for Colombian medical journals

“…3 For example, chronic infections are associated with one in six cancers globally, one in three in sub-Saharan Africa, but only one in thirty in Australasia. 4 Therefore, the inclusion of the two previously mentioned vaccines, together with cervical cancer screening in WHO's indicators for NCDs is positive. However, additional cancer risk factors include exposure to excess sunlight, air pollution, various occupational exposures, and many naturally occurring or industrial chemicals, which are all potential targets for primary prevention.…”

“…Colombian journals publish their content in Spanish and English to increase their visibility and impact factor in the international scientific community, 4 but also to maintain their local role. Additional strategies can be developed, but implementation of unethical practices, such as citation stacking, should not be used.…”

Publicación de artículos en inglés en revistas médicas en español: ¿Realmente no aumenta el número de citaciones en revistas indexadas?

“…Otros estudios han mostrado diferencias a favor del grado de citación de los trabajos publicados en inglés 3 . Esto podría darse porque los artículos latinoamericanos pueden ser considerados como estudios importantes para contrastar otras realidades y al estar publicados en inglés son accesibles a una comunidad más amplia de autores.…”

Author recognition, impact factor, relevance, and the meaning of publishing

“…The tendency of editors to publish research results based on study characteristics rather than quality indicators has been considered a manuscript selection bias 11 . Some authors have suggested a lower recognition of the scientific merit of research from less advanced countries in spite of the fact that, in many cases, the work was published in English in a prestigious scientific journal 12,13 .…”

“…Important funding decisions are frequently based on these estimated impact factors. The impact factor (particularly, the use made of it in many cases) constitutes a limitation or a condition for authors and scientific journals, under which both are obliged to adopt decisions guided, in many cases, more by the rankings than by objective, scientific criteria 13 .…”