Impact factor and its relevance in deciding the merit of a published paper.

Impact factor has been an arguable factor to decide upon the quality of a peer-reviewed journal as it reflects the observable impact the publications in a journal has on the scientific community. So it is reasonable that researchers want to get their work published in a journal with a greater impact factor. Similarly, when it comes to the review of the work done by the researchers, the evaluators/administrators also look upon the impact factor of the journals in which the work has been published. in some institutions, an arbitrary cutoff of Impact factor of 2 or more has been established to recognize the quality work by their faculty.

This practice of oversimplification to judge the quality of research work is incorrect and caution is to be exercised as per the publishers of journal-citation-reports themselves. This editorial points out a few finer issues related to impact factor being used as a scale for measuring a journal's importance.

If we look at the impact factors related to medical science and health profession related journals and perform some simple statistical tests we can see that the impact factor of 2 or more is achieved only by 5 percentile of journals in their respective groups. when one switches the open access option on for the sorted list the number of journals falls even further. 

For developing and underdeveloped nations this creates a new problem due to the lead privilege, which older journals from the developed world have over newly formed societies and journals. The authors are keen to publish in journals with higher impact factors because of the associated reputation and the submissions to the newly conceptualized journals are of low importance as per the scientific community. This discrepancy in the quality of submissions due to the stratification by the impact factor causes a vicious cycle poisoning the growth and recognition of the journals form developing and underdeveloped worlds.

Another issue is a progressive decline in the impact factor as we move from broad sciences (not committed to any specialty) to specialty and subspeciality sciences. It may not be a surprise that due to a niche audience the subspecialty journals, though having a scientific impact may not graduate to an impact factor of two or more.

More to come....

Cherubism

Tobacco dusting as seen in a case of retinal detachment.

As seen in detachment.

Lid laceration right lower lid

Secondary glaucoma after paracentesis

Retinopathy of prematurity

A neonate with prematurity and low birth weight was screened for retinopathy of prematurity.
Poor pupillary dilatation with iris vascularization was seen in both the eyes. This is a sign of severe ROP, which may cause irreversible vision loss.

Very large eye tumor

One of my busy OPD days and in the scorching heat of the month of May, one lady of around 25 years of age takes the patient's seat in front of me. She has a child in her lap who is securely covered under the shroud of mother's Sari.
I immediately understand that it's an obviously disfiguring disease involving the eye or face. She unveils the child and my guess was right. There is a large cricket ball sized protruding tumour mass arising from left orbit where there should have been the eye ball.
I now know that it's a case with orbital spread of Retinoblastoma. Though the child appeared alert though painfully shy because of self awareness of the abnormality in the face due to the tumour.
On enquiring, the parents told that there has been a cat's eye reflex or whiteness in the left eye cornea for last two years approximately. They have been seeing number of eye doctors and advised surgery to remove the left eye. Due to the fear of loosing the left eye, they have been avoiding the advised surgery and this delay has allowed the tumour to grow out of the eye and now this presentation. Worried for the child's survival now they were ready for the treatment which involves chemotherapy to shrink the tumour and subsequent removal of the left eye, eyelids, and other contents of the bony orbit. This procedure will leave the child with disfigured face having a pit in place of left eye and eyelids.

For more information on Retinoblastomaplease visit this internet article