Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography

journal homepage: www.JournalofCardiovascularCT.com

Correspondence

Comparison of the rate of change (slopes) in impact factor of medical imaging journals unveils journals
with organic growth: An observational study (2016–2022)

On June 2023, the Clarivate Analytics Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
electronic platform published the annual Impact Factor (IF) of the year
2022 for its indexed journals. The IF has been used as a quality mea-
surement for journals. IF is commonly an essential criterion when authors
choose where to submit their articles; therefore, it is a necessary measure
for the researcher and the author community.1 As bibliometrics is one of
our group's investigation lines, we have observed and published exciting
behaviors. During the 2020 and 2021 pandemic years, IF JUMPS were
observed in several JCR journals of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and
Medical Imaging (RNMMI) (as well as other medical categories). A cor-
relation was hypothesized with the COVID-19 pandemic.2 Our group
observed an inverted phenomenon in 2022, with most RNMMI journals
decreasing their IFs, which led us to perform this research.
This retrospective study evaluated the journals listed in the RNMMI
category that coincidentally appeared between 2015 and 2022 (it was
mandatory to have IF reported in the last three years). First, we calculate
the rate of change (RoC) based on the formula: [(IF of chosen year – IF of
the previous year)/IF of the previous year] x 100 (results described as %).
In the second step, mixed-effect regression models with random in-
tercepts and slopes (a method previously published by our group)3 tested
the primary and secondary hypothesis of a difference in the overall rate
of change (2018–2022) and stratified subgroups (with positive or nega-
tive RoC in 2022). The statistical significance of all tests was indicated by
the p-value <.05 (two-tailed).
In this study, 132 journals were included; RoC showed a significant
difference during five-year periods (Friedman tests χ2 ¼ 184.251,4 p <
.001). As expected, for the period 2021–2022, 111 (84.1%) journals had
a negative RoC (median ¼ 16.41), while 21 (15.9%) journals had a
positive RoC. There was a statistically significant main effect for years, F
(1, 138.405) ¼ 13.224, p < .001, and direction of RoC, F (1, 5.562) ¼
9.032, p ¼ .026.
We hypothesized that the negative RoC observed in 2022 for most
journals in the RNMMI category (84.1%) could also be related to the
pandemic, but in this case, to the decrease in lockdown and related
measurements, ending this era of extra free time and increased publica-
tions. In 2023, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19
was no longer a public health emergency of international concern,
advising a transition to long-term management of this disease.4
An annual inflation estimate for the IF has been described as
approximately 5%.5 However, our research found a very different
behavior in reality. In 2020, 120 journals (90.22%) in the RNMMI
category exceeded this statistic, and in 2021, 91 (68.42%) of journals in
the same category also exceeded this expectation; some journals even
increased their IF by > 150% in less than one year. However, most of
these journals also saw a significant drop in 2022. One of the leading
journals in this category (Radiology) reported a 32% decrease.
Our findings demonstrate the importance of considering the behavior
of the IF of journals rather than just the IF currently reported. We found
that 15.9% of journals with a positive RoC for the 2022 period demon-
strate that it is possible to achieve continuous growth (even in adverse
circumstances) and provide a sense of security to researchers/authors
that the current IF of a journal is not only due to a ‘circumstantial peak.'
We consider journals with continuous IF growth in the last three years
to have ORGANIC GROWTH (achieved through internal resources and
activities, such as expanding existing products or services, increasing
marketing efforts, or improving operations, among others). Most of the
journals in the imaging category with a scandalous IF decline during
2022 (even many of those considered the top journals) are those with
INORGANIC GROWTH. Fig. 1 shows the global behavior of the RNMMI
journals, in contrast to a journal for the same category that shows organic
growth (Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography).
We believe that the RoC of two consecutive IFs could be helpful for
researchers as a new metric to compare the performance of journals in
RNMMI and other medical fields when looking for places to submit their
work. It is known that a journal's impact helps to pre-evaluate how
manuscripts may perform in particular journals concerning being cited in
the future. Still, with everything mentioned priorly, it is understandable
that this value is not absolute, and it could drastically change for the
following year's JCR report. Therefore, identifying journals that depict
steady organic growth may also be of value to researchers.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcct.2023.08.005
Received 21 July 2023; Received in revised form 8 August 2023; Accepted 13 August 2023
Available online xxxx
1934-5925/© 2023 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Martínez-Greiser P et al., Comparison of the rate of change (slopes) in impact factor of medical imaging journals unveils
journals with organic growth: An observational study (2016–2022), Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.jcct.2023.08.005
Correspondence
Fig. 1. (A) Mean IF per year (2017–2022) for all journals evaluated. (B) The Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography presents an example of organic growth. (C)
Journals with decreasing RoC. (D) Journals with increasing RoC; the blue dashed line (ID 54) represents the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Funding statement
This research did not receive a specific grant from any funding agency
in the public, commercial, or nonprofit sectors.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
P.M.G. and M.G.L were research fellows at the directorate of research
of HGMEL mentored by E.R.V. in 2022–2023.
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Paola Martínez-Greiser, Melissa Garcia-Lezama
Directorate of Research, Hospital General de Mexico ‘Dr. Eduardo Liceaga’,
06720, Mexico City, Mexico
E-mail addresses: paomgreiser98@gmail.com (P. Martínez-Greiser),
melissa.garcia.lezama@uabc.edu.mx (M. Garcia-Lezama).
Santiago Rivera-Ibarguen
Faculty of Medicine, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla,
Mexico
E-mail address: santiago.riverai@alumno.buap.mx.
Ernesto Roldan-Valadez*
Directorate of Research, Hospital General de Mexico ‘Dr. Eduardo Liceaga’,
06720, Mexico City, Mexico
I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University),
Department of Radiology, 119992, Moscow, Russia
*
Corresponding author. Directorate of Research, Hospital General de
Mexico ‘Dr. Eduardo Liceaga’, 06720, Mexico City, Mexico.
E-mail address: ernest.roldan@usa.net (E. Roldan-Valadez).