Article

Journal impact factor and individual article impact

624 Correspondence / American Journal of Emergency Medicine 31 (2013) 621630

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  • Journal impact factor and individual article impact

    To the Editor,

    In the October issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Dr Li et al [1] tried to quantify national contributions to emergency medicine (EM) research by analyzing the publications in highly cited EM journals. There were 2 points in this article that may be misleading. First, EM journals were classified into category of “emergency medicine” not category of “critical care medicine” in 2010 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) [2]. The EM journals were classified into different categories before 1990 JCR. In 1991 JCR, EM journals were classified into category of “critical care,” and this category was renamed “emergency medicine and critical care” in 1996 JCR. This category was divided into “critical care medicine” and “emergency medicine” in 2000 JCR. The number of journals in category of emergency medicine increase from12 in 2000 JCR to 23 in 2010 JCR [3]. Second, the journal impact factor is not representative of individual article citations and quality because of the skewed distributions of articles’ citation [4-6]. Therefore, adopting the accumulated impact factors and the average impact factor of each country as a measurement of contribution may not be feasible. It is the article citations that determine the journal impact factor, not vice versa. Based on the same phenomena that the citations of articles are skewed distribution, highly plus rarely cited articles and evenly cited articles all lead to the same mean citation. The mean citation alone without other descriptive statistic parameters (eg, median, mode, SD, skewness, and kurtosis) only disclosed part of the whole picture of national contributions to EM research.

    Ching-Hsing Lee MD Department of Emergency Medicine Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

    and Chang Gung University College of Medicine

    Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2012.11.023

    References

    1. Li Q, Jiang Y, Zhang M. National representation in the emergency medicine literature: a Bibliometric analysis of highly cited journals. Am J Emerg Med 2012;30:1530-4.
    2. ISI Journal Citation Reports, Institute for Scientific Information. Available at http:// isiknowledge.com; 2010.
    3. Lee CH, Shih CP, Chang YC, et al. The evolution of academic performance in emergency medicine journals: viewpoint from 2000 to 2009 journal citation reports. Acad Emerg Med 2011;18:898-904.
    4. Seglen PO. Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research. BMJ 1997;314:498-502.
    5. Garfield E. The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. JAMA 2006;295: 90-3.
    6. Opthof T. Sense and nonsense about the impact factor. Cardiovasc Res 1997;33:1-7.

      Occipital lobe epilepsy presenting with Visual hallucinations Charles Bonnet syndrome

      To the Editor,

      Thank you for your letter and commentary. Indeed, we did not clearly define the fact that the hallucinations were in the area of visual field loss. The patient did not perceive hallucinations as occurring in the areas of Vision loss but described the hallucinations as peoples’ faces that appeared on the edges of objects that he did see. The hallucinations were in fact on the side of Visual loss. He also said that they often started small and grew larger. Our mention that elementary hallucinations may occur was based on our review of the literature. Indeed, Charles Bonnet is most often characterized by complex hallucination, but some sources relate that elementary hallucinations may occur. In one reference, some hallucinations have been described as a solitary constant solid object in the central visual field, most commonly a flash, but often a complex grid or a branching structure [1]. In addition, a series on Charles Bonnet in patients who received photodynamic therapy as treatment for choroidal neovascu- larization, 15% reported seeing flashing lights, and only 5% described complex hallucinations [2].

      John J. Cienki MD, MSPH

      Jackson Memorial Hospital

      Miami, FL, USA E-mail address: [email protected]

      http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2012.11.031

      References

      Menon GJ, Rahman I, Menon SJ, Dutton GN. Complex visual hallucinations in the visually impaired: the Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Surv Ophthalmol 2003;48(1):58-72.

    7. Cohen SY, Bulik A, Tadayoni R, Quetel G. Visual hallucinations and Charles Bonnet syndrome after photodynamic therapy for age related macular degeneration. Br J Ophthalmol 2003;87(8):977-9.

      Occipital lobe epilepsy presenting with visual hallucinations (Charles Bonnet syndrome)?

      To the Editor,

      We read with interest the report by Drs Brown-Vargas and Cienki

      [1] describing complex visual hallucinations occurring in a patient with occipital lobe epilepsy and congratulate the authors on successfully alleviating the patient’s symptoms.

      ? The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in the subject of this correspondence.

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