This column addresses questions that clinicians commonly ask medical librarians, with the goals of providing information about the various resources offered by medical libraries and of promoting collaboration between PAs and medical librarians. Do you have a question for a medical librarian? Send your question to ask.a.librarian.jaapa@gmail.com.

Question: Is there one place to go for comprehensive, up-to-date information on seasonal influenza for me and my patients?

Answer: Flu.gov comes from the US Department of Health and Human Services, offering government-wide information on H1N1(swine), H5N1(bird), and pandemic influenza for the general public, health and emergency preparedness professionals, policy makers, government and business leaders, school systems, and local communities. Content of the Web site is coordinated by the HHS Interagency Public Affairs Group on Influenza Preparedness and Response and is also available in Spanish. An especially useful feature of the Web site is the section on Flu Myths and Realities.

Another excellent tool is the Public Library of Science (PLoS), which describes itself as a “nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.” Their site features access to recent research findings and has a page focused on influenza. 

Additionally, EBSCO publishing offers a rich resource for clinicians, nurses, and patients, bringing together information from their products DynaMed, Nursing Reference Center, and Patient Education Reference Center into a freely accessed site focused on influenza.

Question: What's the best way to determine the impact factor of various journals, as I am researching which are the most important in my field?

Answer: The impact factor is a well known but somewhat controversial measure of a journal's “impact” within its discipline (not across all of medicine). It attempts to measure the frequency with which the “average article” in a journal has been cited within a given time period and so determine its impact. However, many elements can skew the results. For example, review articles and those written in English tend to be cited more frequently; authors can self-cite; the total number of citable articles in a journal, which effects the impact factor calculation, is subject to variability; etc. So impact factor should be used with an understanding of its limitations.

The most well known source for impact factor is Journal Citation Reports (JCR), a fee-based database to which you may have access with an institutional affiliation. Two free sources to consider are eigenfactor.org and SCImago. Each of these approaches impact factor somewhat differently – number of journals included, time spans covered, and mathematical algorithms all vary. Read about their approaches on their Web sites for a better understanding of what the number means.

Jim Anderson is the PA-NP Supervisor, Department of Orthopedics, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, Washington, and a member of the JAAPA editorial board. Susan Klawansky is a medical librarian at Seattle Children's Hospital.