Recently I trawled through the history of the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing (IJMHN) – if you’re curious please see this editorial and this blog post.
Amongst the things revealed was the encouraging upward trend in the Impact Factor – a metric that reflects how many citations individual academic journals attract over a two year period. I was especially encouraged that a targeted social media strategy, together with the increased volume of articles, coincide with the Impact Factor upward trend since 2017.
Today this arrived in an email:
The 2022 Journal Citation Reports were released overnight, and I am very pleased to let you know that International Journal of Mental Health Nursing’s 2021 Impact Factor is 5.100 – a significant increase from 3.503 for 2020. This result places the Journal in the rankings: 2/125 (Nursing), 2/123 (Nursing (Social Science)), 57/155 (Psychiatry), 43/142 (Psychiatry (Social Science)).
Alison Bell, Journal Publishing Manager, Wiley, email of 29 June 2022
That is – to put it bluntly – bloody amazing!
Don’t believe me? Look at the chart below…
The journal had very humble beginnings. It was just an idea amongst a few Mental Health Nurses in Australia in July 1978. The first issue consisting of just two articles and editorial followed in September 1980 (source and source).
2021 data reveals this humble little journal is now ranked the second most impactful nursing journal on the planet.
Amazing.
Mental Health Nursing is punching above its weight. Mental Health Nursing ranks 5th as principal specialty, after Aged Care, Medical, Surgical and Peri-operative (source and source). Yet, we have a journal that rates 2nd most cited nursing journal, behind the International Journal of Nursing Studies (IJNS).
That’s something to celebrate – not just for the authors, reviewers and editors who put in the hard work to make it happen – but for all Mental Health Nurses.
End
Please spread word about the impact of the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing – it’s a good news story 🙂
Paul McNamara, 29 June 2022
Short URL meta4RN.com/impact
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