David Bluemke, MD, PhD, MsB has served as Editor for the Radiologic Society of North America (RSNA)’s publication Radiology for five years. Over the past year, the journal’s impact factor has seen a remarkable increase to 29.1 from 11.1 from the previous year. “The impact score of a journal is calculated as a ratio of two numbers. The numerator of the impact factor is the number of citations to articles published in each journal over a preceding 2-year period. The denominator is the number of original research and review articles published over the same 2 years,” Bluemke explains in his upcoming scholarly article, “Radiology and the Impact Factor.” He continues, “The impact score for medical and scientific journals has substantial importance in academics.”
During his tenure as Editor of Radiology, Dr. Bluemke’s focus has been on publishing research that reaches and interests the Radiology’s audience. To expand the journal’s reach, Dr. Bluemke diversified its media content. He explained, “To improve understanding, I started broad scale publication of editorials by world experts on the topic, podcasts to explain articles, greater social media presence and more review articles.”
He also credits the COVID-19 pandemic for the change in impact score. He said, “The pandemic changed our priorities. The medical field needed to understand the diagnosis and extent of SARS-CoV2 infection. While most scientific journals had 15-30% increases during the pandemic, the impact factor for Radiology increased much more – by 160%. This was due to our prioritization of research by remarkable authors about COVID-19.”
Looking beyond this year, Dr. Bluemke recognized the critical importance of the In Training Editorial Board. He goes further to explain, “There is much concern about lower rates of participation in academic medicine by trainees, but the next generation of research and publication needs the involvement of our residents and fellows. The Radiology In Training Editorial Board has already trained 40-50 rising stars who will make a long-term difference in imaging and academic medicine.”
Congratulations to Dr. Bluemke on seeing such a substantial increase in impact score in his role as Editor of Radiology!