(Toronto, 19.06.2009) On June 19th, 2008, Thomson Reuters released their 2008 Journal Citation Reports, reporting journal impact factors for the worlds' most important scholarly journals.

With an excellent impact factor of 3.6 (up from last years 3.0) JMIR is now officially the leading, #1 ranked publication (out of 20 journals) in the medical informatics category. JMIR was ranked #2 in 2006 and 2007, with an impact factor almost equal to the Journal of the Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA). In 2008, JAMIA (IF 2008: 3.4) has now been overtaken by JMIR.
JMIR and JAMIA are the only journals in this category with an impact factor over 3. The only other journal with "Internet" in its title (MED INFORM INTERNET) achieved an impact factor of only 0.9.

JMIR is now also ranked #2 in the health care sciences & services category (out of 62 leading journals), only topped by a publication which contains exclusively systematic reviews (Health Technol Asses). In that category, JMIR beats such reputable journals such as Health Affairs, Medical Care, Milbank Quarterly, Medical Decision Making, and Health Services Research.

JMIR remains the only open access journal among the 20 journals in the Medical Informatics category; all other journals have significant backing of commercial publishers and/or societies.

It may in fact be the first time in history that an independent open access journal makes the top of an impact factor ranking list in a scientific discipline, toppling the traditionally leading journal which is published by the most influential society in the field.

Authors considering submitting their work to JMIR should keep in mind that the "open access advantage" goes well beyond citations and uptake within the scientific community (as measured by citations) - it also facilitates dissemination and knowledge translation to a wider audience (including knowledge endusers such as policy makers or consumers) - in other words, the open access advantage goes well beyond citations and impact factor, as measured by ISI/SCI. (see also Eysenbach G. The Open Access Advantage, http://www.jmir.org/2006/2/e8/). For many authors, the diverse audience and wide reach is the primary reason for why they submit their best papers to JMIR.

About the Journal Impact Factor. The Journal Impact Factor is published in the Journal Citation Report (JCR), a product of Thomson Reuters ISI (Institute for Scientific Information). JCR provides quantitative tools for evaluating journals. The impact factor is one of these; it is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a given period of time. The impact factor for a journal is calculated based on a three-year period, and can be considered to be the average number of times published papers are cited one or two years after publication. The 2008 Journal Impact Factor (published in June 2009) takes into account citations that occurred in 2008 (n=219), to JMIR articles published in 2006/2007 (n=61). For information on the Impact Factor see http://scientific.thomson.com/. For access to the Web of Science / Journal Citation Reports, contact your librarian.

About the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). JMIR is an independent open access journal, founded in 1999, published by scientists for scientists and the public. Work published in JMIR remains to be owned by the respective authors.