The increasing impact of Oral Diseases

Abstract

Despite the many shortcomings of reducing the value and status of a journal to an impact factor (IF) rating, these numbers do indicate something useful to the biomedical science community about journal esteem. As a consequence, IFs influence what journals people decide to read and in which journals people decide to publish. We are writing now, because recently Journal Citation Reports (Thompson Reuters) released the 2008 Impact Factors for biomedical science journals. Oral Diseases saw a solid increase in its IF and a marked increase in its ranking relative to other journals in the category ‘Dentistry, Oral Surgery and Medicine’. As shown in Figure 1, this is the second consecutive year that Oral Diseases has seen a notable increase in its IF. After several year of having its IF hovering about 1.5, in 2007 Oral Diseases’ IF was 1.945 and this year it is 2.087. Perhaps more importantly, Oral Diseases’ relative ranking in its journal category has increased from 21/49 in 2006 to 17/51 in 2007 to 9/55 in 2008. Oral Diseases’ impact factor 2005–2008 Although the progress seems to be real over the past 3 years, Oral Diseases still has not reached the level to which we aspired when we began to co-edit the Journal in 2005. Our two goals were for Oral Diseases to have an IF ∼3.5 and to make Oral Diseases the journal to read in the head and neck sciences. We have much more to do before Oral Diseases reaches both goals, but we are making progress. While we would like to believe that our editorial philosophy and our work ethic have in some way contributed to this progress, the change most obviously comes from the quality and nature of the manuscripts being submitted. In that regard, it is interesting to look at the top articles cited and downloaded recently. For example, for the former we have good data for the year 2006, i.e. if you look at the top five articles by number of citations made during 2007 for manuscripts that were published in Oral Diseases during 2006, you find an interesting mix of topics (Table 1). Included are papers on mucosal diseases, developmental biology, stem cells, and oral sequelae of systemic conditions, i.e. reflective of a real link between oral tissues to the rest of the body. Similarly, a comparable pattern emerges if one considers the number and subject matter of the most frequently downloaded articles from Oral Diseases through last year (Figure 2, Table 2). The five top downloaded articles include ones on halitosis, oral sequelae of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, hepatitis C, diabetes mellitus and salivary gland repair. These articles reflect subjects that are of real interest to those in the head and neck sciences, whether their focus is clinical or biological. The increasing popularity of Oral Diseases is further affirmed by a ∼50% increase in the number of manuscripts of all types submitted from January–August of this year compared to the same period last year, something that has resulted in an increase in the number of issues published this year from six to eight. Increase in online downloads from Oral Diseases 2002–2008 In 2005, we defined our mission statement as follows: ‘Oral Diseases is a multidisciplinary and international journal with a focus on head and neck disorders. It seeks to provide a forum for addressing biological and clinical issues linked by this anatomical locale, thus bridging often-isolated concerns of dentistry and medicine. As such, Oral Diseases aims to foster integrative approaches to the understanding and management of oral and perioral conditions with particular reference to systemic implications.’ While much remains to be done, we are clearly heading towards realization of that goal. Oral Diseases has become the premier journal of Oral Medicine, and is making progress towards being a ‘must read’ journal for all head and neck sciences. We are slowly, in a small way, linking dentistry and oral diseases with general medicine, something we believe will greatly benefit many patients. We sincerely thank our authors, reviewers, Editorial Board and Associate Editors for making this happen.