The impact factor is one of the best-known bibliometric indicators, if not the best, to evaluate the quality of journals in biomedical sciences and other fields of knowledge. Since quite a few years, the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Knowledge platform, managed by Thomson Reuters, uses various parameters to monitor and assess good performance of scientific journals. From the data in the Web of Knowledge platform drafted annually, since 1997, a report on the various scientific journals, classified by disciplines, known as Journal Citation Report (JCR) is being developed. Of all the indicators published in this platform, the most commonly used by scientists and researchers’ curriculum evaluators is the impact factor.1

The impact factor is the index that assesses the influence of a journal on a particular discipline through the number of citations received from other journals within the same discipline or others, also included in the JCR. Thus, the higher the impact factor of a journal is, the greater its influence on the scientific community, and more specifically on the disciplines to which it belongs. These disciplines are identified as “categories” in the Web of Knowledge platform, which in the case of Archivos de Bronconeumología falls under the category of Respiratory System.1 Most of the journals usually belong to one single category, although there are journals that belong to two or even three categories. This provides them with a greater number of potential readers and/or authors interested in their contents, hence potentially increasing the number of citations of a given journal. In the category of the Respiratory System various journals share the same classification with Critical Care Medicine.

The impact factor of a journal is defined as the ratio of the total number of citations from other journals (external citations) and from the journal itself (self-citations), to the number of articles published in the journal over the previous two years.1 The impact factor is calculated annually and always refers to the previous year and not to the current year. This is because it is not possible to calculate the total number of citations received in a given year until this has not finished. The Web of Knowledge platform is responsible for publishing the impact factor of all journals listed in the JCR annually every June. All the aforementioned variables account for changes in the value of the impact factor for the same journal over a period of time.

As mentioned, a major determinant in the calculation of the impact factor is the number of articles published in the previous two years. Therefore, the Editors of journals are increasingly more demanding and meticulous when selecting the items to publish from all received daily. This makes it possible to gauge the denominator of the equation used in the calculation of the impact factor. This requirement results in a rigorous selection of the type of items to publish on the basis of not only the quality of its content, but also the potential impact they will have on the scientific community, and the number of citations that could eventually receive. In this regard, the “capacity” of a research group to publish their results in high impact journals within a specialty has been notably modified in recent years, since most of the journals impose increasingly more stringent criteria for the publication of their articles. It is possible that in the new era that has just begun, through journals using the “Open Access” modality, this scenario of strict constrains will change. However, it is too soon to describe trends.

As recently known, the journal Archivos de Bronconeumología was included for the first time in the JCR in 2011. Over 8 consecutive years, the journal has had an impact factor steadily swinging upward, which was published annually in the JCR. In June 2011 the Thomson Reuters company officially informed the editorial committee that the journal Archivos de Bronconeumología would no longer be included in the JCR Web of Knowledge platform for a minimum of two years, because they considered that the level of self-citation (citations from the own journal) was very high, not reflecting its real impact on the scientific community. This decision did not preclude Archivos de Bronconeumología from being present in other data bases as “PubMed” or “Science Direct”. Since then and over the last two years, members of the successive editorial teams have meticulously worked in order to control the level of self-citation in the Journal. This endeavor culminated just a few weeks ago when Thomson Reuters informed us that Archivos de Bronconeumología would be listed again in the JCR this year (2013) with an impact factor of 1.372.1 As expected, this news was very welcome by all of us as there was great expectation and it is meaningful to the journal and the Hispanic community of pulmonologists and thoracic surgeons.

Thus, Archivos de Bronconeumología begins a second stage of its journey, together with many other prestigious journals in its category, with a distant but not unachievable horizon. We are sure that everyone, without exception, would like to reach that day in which the journal will be placed at the level of excellence that professionals dedicated to research in respiratory diseases deserve as is the Spanish-speaking community. From this committee, it is our desire to express our gratitude to all those who, despite the vicissitudes of recent years, have stood firm and have continued to work hard for and with the journal as authors and reviewers. To everyone else, we want to convey a message of enthusiasm and hope, through which joint efforts will exceed the simple sum of individuals, thus enabling us to turn our dream into an achievable reality, increasing the visibility of our Journal and therefore, its impact within the scientific community.