[The "impact factor" of anesthesia and intensive care journals]

The "impact factor" (IF) of scientific journals is defined as the number of citations obtained over a one-year period of articles published during the two previous years in a journal, divided by the number of articles published in that journal during the preceding two years. The IF, initially devised as an indicator of the quality of a journal, is at present mainly considered as an indicator of the quality of an article contained in that journal. However the IF of a journal is not equivalent to the actual impact of an article. Therefore the IF is not an accurate tool for assessment of the scientific quality of the author of that article. The IFs of journals published in English are significantly higher than the IFs of those in another language, mainly as English is the language used for international communication and as English speaking authors rarely cite articles published in another language. The IF of the journal of the French society for anaesthesiology and intensive care, the Annales françaises d'anesthésie et de réanimation (Afar), is about seven times below the IF of Anesthesiology, which has the highest IF in the category "Anesthesiology". From 1992 to 1998, the relative impact value of the Afar has increased by 429%. However the absolute value remains low.