Heliyon
Volume 6, Issue 3, March 2020, e03575
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Research article
Influential variables in the Journal Impact Factor of Dentistry journals

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03575Get rights and content
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Abstract

Objective

The aim of this contribution is to determine what variables influence the position, by quartiles of the impact factor, as a quality indicator of a journal in the field of Dentistry.

Methods

To this end, 24 journals included in Journal Citation Reports, 6 pertaining to each quartile were selected by a stratified sampling and then an ordinal regression model was estimated stepwise considering the journal impact factor quartile as response variable.

Results

The estimation procedure concluded that the average number of papers published yearly by a journal and the percentage of systematic reviews are the most significant variables to be considered, along with the factor representing the journal's degree of adherence to recommendations by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Conclusions/Clinical significance

Systematic reviews have significant effect on the Journal Impact Factor position of a journal as well as adherence to ICMJE recommendations, while papers publishing clinical trials bear no influence on this factor. Greater yearly average of published papers in a journal means a higher impact factor.

Keywords

Journal impact factor
Ordinal regression model
Dentistry
Statistics
Applied computing
Education
Information science

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