Author: John A. Wagner, MD, PhD on July 30, 2021 
The most recent impact factor (IF) numbers are in, and Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) clocked in with an impressive 4.689. As you can see from the graph above, the CTS IF has trended up over the time frame the Journal has been published under the banner of ASCPT. The positive IF trend confirms that the new CTS content and editorial strategy – with a goal of becoming the beacon for the field of translational science – have been highly effective.
Personally, I like to think of IF is a “biomarker” of the influence and intellectual rigor of the published research. IF is a way of assessing journal performance by calculating how often researchers cite journal papers. Here’s how IF works: Clarivate Analytics, the organization that publishes the Journal Citation Reports, which includes the IF, calculates the number of current year citations of articles published in the two previous years, which is then divided by the number of articles published during those two years.
Clarivate is changing how they calculate IF. Historically, only articles published in assigned volumes/issues would be included in this calculation (both for the numerator and denominator). However, this left some ambiguity where articles had their initial publication date (what Clarivate calls the “Early Access (EA)” publication date) in a different year than their issue publication date. Beginning with 2020 IF, all content published as EA in 2020 contributes to cited references for the 2020 IF numerator. Subsequently, all EA articles published in 2020 will contribute to the journal’s denominator in the subsequent IF calculations. Stay tuned for future updates in IF calculation in years to come.
The three most-often cited papers for the 2020 IF period were:
All three of these terrific articles were high quality, topical reviews on key areas in translational science, including new therapeutic modalities and rare disease. CTS welcomes reviews, mini-reviews, and tutorials relevant to these topics as well as other areas in scope, including therapeutic mechanisms of action, biomarkers, wearables, and mobile health applications, precision medicine, and genomic medicine.
The 2020 IF reflects citations in 2020 to articles published in 2019 and 2018. Therefore, the 2020 report does not include any articles about COVID-19 epidemiology, therapeutics, or vaccine development. It will be interesting to follow the effect of COVID-19 research on IF. Nothing in our lifetimes has even come close to showing the value of translational science to our daily lives, and as the beacon for the field, CTS has, to date, published nearly 50 articles on the topic, many of which moved the needle on COVID-19 research.
The CTS editorial team would like to thank CTS authors and readers, the ASCPT membership, and the many folks who make the Journal work, including our terrific peer reviewers, as well as ASCPT and Wiley staff. This is your IF! Our authors are creating the quality content that is ultimately cited in the scientific literature, driving the growing interest in translational science and clinical pharmacology communities. The Journal owes its success to all of you. The vision for CTS is to become the beacon and organizing principle for the field of translational science. The laser focus and implementation of this vision has driven the new IF results and remains well-aligned with the ASCPT Strategic Plan. Please continue to help drive our impact and submit to CTS!
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