I read with interest the discussion about citation indices in CMAJ.[1, 2] It was recently pointed out to me that publishing abstracts is a way to increase the impact factor of a journal. Gastroenterology publishes the abstracts of the American Gastroenterology Association meeting each year. These abstracts are often cited but do not affect the denominator in the impact factor calculation. Is there a way that the citation index can capture this kind of information?