The new impact rankings of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) have just been released, and Pharmacotherapy’s 2008 impact factor (the most recent figure) has increased from 2.012 (in 2007) to 2.527, surpassing both the Annals of Pharmacotherapy (2.305) and AJHP (1.763). The Board of Directors (BOD) and the Scientific Editor Council (SEC) review strategies on an ongoing basis to improve journal quality and impact on the field of pharmacotherapy. The ISI impact factor is one of the factors monitored by BOD and SEC to assess impact and quality. During the past couple of years, the Scientific Editors have increased the rejection rate of papers submitted to the journal to reduce the number of papers that do not substantially contribute to evidenced-based pharmacotherapy or clinical research. Although we cannot determine precisely what increased the impact factor in 2008, we suspect that the increase is partly because of the increased rejection rate, fostered by the increased involvement of our SEC.

The ISI impact factor reported each year reflects data from the previous 2 years. The 2008 impact factor is calculated as follows:

SEC and BOD remain confident that new initiatives will lead to further increases in the quality of the journal as well as the impact factor. This newsletter and the journal will publish more information about these and other initiatives. We thank all of you who have served the journal in so many capacities.