[Bibliometric index].

The Institute of Scientific information has edited an index to evaluate the diffusion of scientific articles. It is based on the fact that the more an article is cited as a reference in other articles, the more it is considered to be important, and the higher the coefficient attributed to the journal in which it was originally published. The impact factor takes into account the average number of times which a journal is mentioned for recent articles published in a given year. This index is an attempt to quantify the notoriety of scientific journal for all scientific medical specialties.