Foot and Ankle Surgery´s 2025 journal impact factor (IF) is the highest of all foot and ankle journals

The journal impact factors (IF) for 2025 have been released very recently. Foot and Ankle Surgery reached for the first time the highest impact factor of all foot and ankle journals. Due to the very positive IF-development of our journal, this editorial should enlighten this development in comparison with other foot and ankle journals ( Fig. 1 ) .

Image, AltText currently not available — Fig. 1

The IF was first introduced in 1963 by Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and used as an indicator of the importance of a scientific journal to its field ^,^, . Although IF is widely used by institutions and clinicians, people have widespread misconception regarding the method for calculating the journal IF, its significance and how it can be utilized ^, . The IF of a journal is not associated to the factors like quality of peer review process and quality of content of the journal, but is a measure that reflects the average number of citations to articles published in journals, books, thesis, project reports, newspapers, conference/seminar proceedings, documents published in internet, notes, and any other approved documents ^, . Journals with higher IFs believed to be more important than those with lower ones . According to Eugene Garfield, IF simply reflects the ability of the journals and editors to attract the best paper available ^, . Generally, publication of review articles increases the IF whereas publication of case reports, case series or technical tips decreases which also led to strategic adaption of Foot and Ankle Surgery ^,^, . The IF can be calculated after completing the minimum of 3 years of publication ^, . The journal with the highest IF is the one that published the most cited articles, i.e. number of citations divided through number of published articles over defined time period (typically the previous 2 years) ^, . IFs are calculated and listed each year in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) by Clarivate (Philadelphia, USA and London, UK).

Foot and Ankle Surgery received its first IF in 2015 ( Fig. 1 ). IFs of foot and ankle journals increased until 2021 with the highest registered IFs of Foot and Ankle International (3.569) and Foot and Ankle Surgery (2.84) ( Fig. 1 ). The IFs then decreased also due to changed calculation methods ( Fig. 1 ) . 2025, the IF of Foot and Ankle Surgery increased again to 2.4 which is the highest of the 2025 IFs of foot and ankle journals (Foot and Ankle International and Journal of Foot and Ankle Research, 2.3; Foot and Ankle Specialist, 1.7; Foot and Ankle Clinics, 1.6; Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery, 1.4). This reflects the increased impact of Foot and Ankle Surgery among the other foot and ankle journals . Furthermore, the relatively high IFs of foot and ankle journals in 2025 reflects the impact of foot and ankle journals in the orthopaedic field as such. In conclusion, the current IF certifies the very positive development of our journal. As this is only possible with enormous efforts, I thank all authors, reviewers and editors, the publisher and EFAS for the continuous contribution. The increased IF will again lead to increasing number of submissions, and I want to encourage you again to volunteer as reviewer to support the further development of our journal.

Homepage: www.krankenhaus-rummelsberg.de (Quick access department: www.foot-surgery.eu )