B – Journal impact factor: holy grail?

van der Wall EE. Journal impact factor: holy grail? Netherlands Heart Journal 2012;20:385-386
(doi: 10.1007/s12471-012-0317-3)

There are several ways to artificially improve the impact factor of a journal. This article gives some examples of this manipulative strategy: editors may stimulate authors to cite papers published in the journal in which they are to be published; the number of citable papers can be purposely limited to only original and review articles. At present, no valid alternative to the impact factor has gained sufficient ground.
http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12471-012-0317-3