Genome Biology, BioMed Central's flagship title covering biology in the post-genomic era, has been assessed as having an Impact Factor of 9.71. The journal's first Impact Factor places it in the top five of research journals in the highly competitive Genetics and Heredity field, and the 4th most cited journal in the Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology. Matthew Cockerill, BioMed Central's Publisher, comments, "Genome Biology's impressive Impact Factor is evidence of BioMed Central's commitment to quality, and shows that top researchers at the cutting edge of biology are increasingly choosing open access publication for their best work."
Malaria Journal, with a first Impact Factor of 2.14, is the number two journal in the Tropical Medicine field, and number five in the Parasitology category. Launched in 2001, Malaria Journal was one of the first journals started as part of BioMed Central's independent journal program, and is the first of these independent journals to receive an Impact Factor.
Seven journals in the BMC series also received their first Impact Factors this year. BMC Developmental Biology, with an Impact Factor of 5.41, is ranked at number six in the developmental biology field. BMC Structural Biology enters the Biophysics category at number eight, with an Impact Factor of 5.00. BMC Evolutionary Biology's Impact Factor of 4.45 is the 6th most highly cited journal in the evolutionary biology category. BMC Biotechnology now has an Impact Factor of 3.05, BMC Neuroscience 2.73, BMC Microbiology 2.18, BMC Gastroenterology 1.46.
Dr Cockerill continues, "These impressive rankings demonstrate that the BMC-series is publishing solid research that is being widely cited, across many different areas." Twenty-five journals published by BioMed Central now have Impact Factors, and the average Impact Factor for a BioMed Central journal has dramatically increased compared to 2004 figures.
A number of BioMed Central's journals have seen their Impact Factors increase in the 2005 Journal Citation Report. Breast Cancer Research's Impact Factor jumped from 2.98 in 2004 to 4.03 this year. BMC Molecular Biology went up to 4.49 from 3.12, and BMC Genomics increased from 3.25 to 4.09. BMC Health Services Research increased to 1.63, BMC Public Health's Impact Factor also went up, to 1.66.
BioMed Central has calculated unofficial Impact Factors for many other journals for which official figures not yet available. Using the same methods as Thomson Scientific, BioMed Central has found that these unofficial Impact Factors show show similarly high citation rates. BioMed Central continues discussions with Thomson Scientific, proposing additional journals to be considered for citation tracking.
The impact factors, which are calculated by Thomson Scientific (ISI), look at citations in 2005 of articles published in the journals in the period 2003-2004.