Measuring the impact factor of individual researchers in biomedical disciplines.

The authors propose an algorithm for calculating the cumulative personal impact factor of the publications of any researcher whose research activity involves reporting findings in scientific journals or books in the researcher’s field of specialization. This algorithm takes into account the number of times that each published article or book is cited, self-citations, the position of the researcher’s name in the authorship list of each article or book chapter, and the density of this cumulative impact in relation to the researcher’s total production. In addition, it takes into account the type of article or book assessed (review or original research paper), and the length of time since the researcher’s last publication. This algorithm could be useful for the evaluation of the investigational quality of the subjects, in personnel selection processes in which the candidate’s research performance comparisons of the personal scientific influence of various subjects and different research centers.