JAT's Impact Factor—Room for Improvement?

The impact factor of a scientific journal is simply the ratio of the number of citations to the number of citable items (articles and reviews) over a given time period, usually two years after the year of publication. Trends in the impact factor of Journal of Analytical Toxicology (JAT) are reviewed and compared with other leading journals in the forensic sciences and toxicology. In particular, the journals that frequently cite JAT articles (citing journals) and the journals cited in articles published in JAT (cited journals) are compared and contrasted. The reasons for citing a particular article are considered, and some suggestions are made for improving the impact factor of JAT, if this is deemed necessary. This could be achieved in a number of ways, such as speeding the editorial-handling and peer-review processes, by including one or more invited review articles in each issue of the journal, or by increasing the number of references cited so the references/article ratio increases. Regardless of journal impact factor, an article should be judged by its usefulness to the field and not the prestige of the journal where it is published.