THE Medical Journal of Australia has reached its highest ever Impact Factor (IF) of 5.332, according to the 2018 Journal Citation Report released by Clarivate Analytics, its third successive rise.
The MJA’s IF has climbed from 3.369 in 2015, 3.675 in 2016, and 4.227 in 2017, placing it firmly in the top 20 titles in Clarivate’s General and Internal Medicine category, ranked 16th of 160, up from 19th.
Laureate Professor Nicholas Talley, AC, editor-in-chief of the MJA, said that the result was just reward for the recommitment of the Journal to publishing high-quality content.
“The latest impact factor results show by international standards the MJA is one of the world’s best general medical journals, and it’s been going up and up in the rankings since 2016,” Professor Talley said.
“Publishing in the MJA has real impact. The articles we publish are well cited and very widely read, generating huge mainstream press and social media interest.
“Australian research is world leading and we aim for excellence.
"We are now receiving an increased volume of submissions and we are forced to reject a higher volume of manuscripts than previously, however our average time to first decision is now 5 days, and our online first model and partnership with Wiley Online Library, are ensuring a rapid time to publication.
“It’s still free to publish in the MJA; authors pay no fees. And all original research is made freely available for all to read on www.mja.com.au
“The MJA is Australia’s highest-ranking medical journal and one of the world’s leading journals. We have very ambitious plans to be even better because we believe this is what Australian researchers deserve. We welcome your best original research, reviews, meta-analyses, clinical trials, guidelines and perspectives.”
Impact Factor is calculated using citation data.
- Cate Swannell