Citation analysis of selected clinical pharmacology journals

Perceptions of pharmacy and medical journal quality vary widely. One objective measure of the quality of a scientific journal is the impact factor that can be defined as "a measure of the frequency with which the 'average article' in a journal has been cited in a particular year." The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical pharmacology journals available through the Science Citation Index and determine those that have the greatest impact. From these data, it appears that the premier primary literature journal in clinical pharmacology is Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics while the premier review journal has been Clinical Pharmacokinetics. Possible explanations for impact factor fluctuations over time are also discussed.