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VIEWS & REVIEWS: Christopher Martyn Advice to a new editor BMJ 2007; 334: 586 [Full text]

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the dark side of impact factors

Helen EJ Miller   (23 March 2007)

the dark side of impact factors 23 March 2007
Helen EJ Miller, consultant psychiatrist National Deaf Service 146a Bedford Hill London SW12 9HW Send response to journal: Re: the dark side of impact factors	Christopher Martin's tongue in cheek advice the new editor of a prestigious- if fictional- journal is to raise the imapact factor by a variety of measures including 'resist any sympathy when a paper is submitted on an unfashionable condition such as deafness'. As a psychiatrist working with deaf sign language users I was delighted to see at last a mention of deafness in a prestigious- and non-fictional- journal. My Teams' attempts at getting articles published in mainstream journals have been met with responses such as 'not of general interest', 'there is a misspelling with Deaf spelt with a capital D' (in fact this is the recognised name for culturally deaf sign language users- explained in the clearly unread introduction) and a personal favourite review of a paper on adpating an instrument into BSL 'I would expect that particularly among deaf people an interview poses difficulties because of the sensory handicap, and the most logical choice would be to use or produce a (suitable) written format' (again that Deaf people are 'functionally illiterate was spelt out in the introduction: do reviewers read introductions?). Learning Disability psychiatrists have over come this by developing their own journals. Deafness is quickly following suit. This pushes the evidence base on psychiatry in disability out of the mainstream journals at a time when policy is pushing the care of patients with learning disability and deafness into mainstream services. Recently Dying from Indifference reported 6 tragic cases of people with learning disability who suffered from poor hospital care. Might an underlying culture of institutional discrimination have contributed to these cases and might this in some way being fuelled by pursuit of the 'maliganat number'. Competing interests: None declared