The 2008 Impact Factors have arrived!!

摘要

Around the middle of June all editors of scientific journals get nervous-not because the school terms are over and manuscripts will begin to flow in greater numbers, not be cause there are professional meetings (like IFT) that will demand specific focus and attention to the journals of the professional society, but because the impact factors (IF) will be released. This editor is no different. I wait with anticipation to see the impact factors for IFT's peer-reviewed journals, the Journal of Food Science and Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. I want to see if the hard work the Scientific Editors, Associate Editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers, manuscript authors, and IFF staff have put into trying to elevate the IF has paid off. My anticipation of IF standing is not to show evidence that I really believe in impact factors as a measure of quality of a journal, but rather because I know that many institutions regard impact factor as a measure of quality of papers that are published therein, and, at least for one criterion, judge their faculty and staff on the basis of papers in high impact factor journals. So we all work for improvement in IFs even if some don't believe they are a good measure of journal quality.