Impact factor and the need for its improvement among indexed journals of Pakistan.

The scientific world now a days revolve around publishing studies in sound peer reviewed journals to increase the visibility of the studies, to use them for future research studies, and devising preventive strategies. The visibility and standard of a scientific journal is usually assessed by the impact factor (IF) of that journal. The Thomson Reuters, formerly known as the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), whose citation indexes brought forth computer-compiled statistical reports on the output of journals as well citation frequency. In 1975, Thomson Reuters started publishing 'Journal Citation Reports' (JCR) as part of the 'Science Citation Index' (SCI) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).1 The JCR provides quantitative tools for evaluating, ranking, comparing, and categorizing journals. The IF is one of these, which is calculated by dividing the number of current year citations to the source items published in that journal during the previous two years.2