Abstract 12662: Differences in Journal Impact Factor(IF) Between Initial and Subsequent Publication of Cardiovascular Clinical Trials-An Analysis From the ClinicalTrials.gov Repository

Abstract

Introduction: After publication of the primary outcome of a clinical trial additional data of interest continue to be published -.To achieve high visibility of their findings most authors tend to select journals with a high IF. The IF is often viewed as a measure of journal quality as a whole. Hypothesis: We compared IF of journals where the primary outcomes from a clinical trial were published to IF of journals where subsequent papers were published. Methods: This was a cross sectional analysis design. We analyzed cardiovascular clinical trials from Clinicaltrials.gov. We did not limit our search by date. We chose clinical trials which had 2 or more published manuscripts in journals with indexed IFs. We queried the Thomson Reuters’ Web of Knowledge to determine the individual IF. Results: Our search returned 72 cardiovascular clinical trials from a query of the Clinicaltrials.gov database. The mean IF of the primary index publication from the trials were 27.01 (95% confidence interval-CI 21.96-32.06); while that from subsequent publications from the same trials were 11.72 (95% CI 8.97-14.47). The mean difference in IF of journals publishing the index and subsequent results was 15.28 (95% 2.11-17.96). There was a strong correlation between the initial publication IF and the IF difference with the subsequent manuscript (p<0.001). Conclusions: The initial publications of cardiovascular trials consistently occur in journals with an IF higher than in subsequent publications. The higher the journal IF of the initial publication the greater the difference in journal IF between initial and subsequent publications.