Impact of abstracts and short reports
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* Eugene Garfield

**[Dr. Garfield responds:]** 

If you add abstracts and if they are included as source items you would dilute the impact factor. If a journal publishes abstracts and they are not included by ISI in the database, then any citations to them would tend to increase the impact factor. In other ISI databases where each source item is linked to its citations (for example, the Journal Performance Indicators data-base), the effect would not be noticed. I checked the Web of Science [a Web interface for ISI's citation databases] and found that abstracts for *Gastroenterology* are included. From the point of view of current dissemination of information this is very important. It does mean that any citations to these abstracts would tend to inflate the impact factor. If you check the ISI's Journal Performance Indicators file you can determine just how much these extra citations affect this journal or any other.