Press Release: Impressive new Impact Factors for BioMed Central's open-access journals

[<Grace@biomedcentral.com>]

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

20 June 2006

Eleven journals published by BioMed Central, the open access 
publisher, received their first Impact Factor this month. With 
nine journals in the top 10 of their 2005 Journal Citation 
Report* category, and ten journals with a 2005 Impact Factor 
exceeding 3.00, open access journals are confirmed as publishing 
high-quality, highly cited research.

Genome Biology, BioMed Central's flagship title covering biology 
in the post-genomic era, has been assessed as having an Impact 
Factor of 9.71. The journal's first Impact Factor places it in 
the top five of research journals in the highly competitive 
Genetics and Heredity field, and the 4th most cited journal in 
the Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology. Matthew Cockerill, 
BioMed Central's Publisher, comments, "Genome Biology's 
impressive Impact Factor is evidence of BioMed Central's 
commitment to quality, and shows that top researchers at the 
cutting edge of biology are increasingly choosing open access 
publication for their best work."

Malaria Journal, with a first Impact Factor of 2.14, is the 
number two journal in the Tropical Medicine field, and number 
five in the Parasitology category. Launched in 2001, Malaria 
Journal was one of the first journals started as part of BioMed 
Central's independent journal program, and is the first of these 
independent journals to receive an Impact Factor.

Seven journals in the BMC series also received their first Impact 
Factors this year. BMC Developmental Biology, with an Impact 
Factor of 5.41, is ranked at number six in the developmental 
biology field. BMC Structural Biology enters the Biophysics 
category at number eight, with an Impact Factor of 5.00. BMC 
Evolutionary Biology's Impact Factor of 4.45 is the 6th most 
highly cited journal in the evolutionary biology category. BMC 
Biotechnology now has an Impact Factor of 3.05, BMC Neuroscience 
2.73, BMC Microbiology 2.18, BMC Gastroenterology 1.46.

Dr Cockerill continues, "These impressive rankings demonstrate 
that the BMC-series is publishing solid research that is being 
widely cited, across many different areas." Twenty-five journals 
published by BioMed Central now have Impact Factors, and the 
average Impact Factor for a BioMed Central journal has 
dramatically increased compared to 2004 figures.

A number of BioMed Central's journals have seen their Impact 
Factors increase in the 2005 Journal Citation Report. Breast 
Cancer Research's Impact Factor jumped from 2.98 in 2004 to 4.03 
this year. BMC Molecular Biology went up to 4.49 from 3.12, and 
BMC Genomics increased from 3.25 to 4.09. BMC Health Services 
Research increased to 1.63, BMC Public Health's Impact Factor 
also went up, to 1.66.

BioMed Central has calculated unofficial Impact Factors for many 
other journals for which official figures not yet available. 
Using the same methods as Thomson Scientific, BioMed Central has 
found that these unofficial Impact Factors show show similarly 
high citation rates. BioMed Central continues discussions with 
Thomson Scientific, proposing additional journals to be 
considered for citation tracking.

The impact factors, which are calculated by Thomson Scientific 
(ISI), look at citations in 2005 of articles published in the 
journals in the period 2003-2004.

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Press Office Contacts:

Grace Baynes for BioMed Central
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7631 9988
E-mail: press@biomedcentral.com