What the impact factor actually measures
The journal impact factor, published annually by Clarivate in the Journal Citation Reports, is a ratio. The numerator is the number of citations received in a given year to articles your journal published in the previous two years. The denominator is the number of citable items (typically research articles and reviews) your journal published in those same two years. A 2026 impact factor, for example, counts citations made in 2025 to articles published in 2023 and 2024.
Two facts follow directly from this formula. First, only citations to recent articles count, so the impact factor rewards work that gets cited quickly. Second, you raise the number by increasing the numerator (more citations) faster than the denominator (number of articles). That makes citation velocity (how quickly newly published articles accumulate citations) the metric that matters most.
IF = Citations(current year) to articles from previous 2 years ÷ Citable items from those same 2 years. The numerator drives the metric. Increasing citations to recent articles is the only way to lift the ratio.
The strategies that work
Increase the discoverability of recent articles. An article cannot be cited if researchers never find it. The two-year citation window of the impact factor means that an article's first 24 months are decisive, and that is exactly the period when a new paper is least visible and has the fewest inbound links. Surfacing recent articles to the right readers, in the moment they are reading related work, is the single most actionable lever an editor controls.
Publish work that attracts citations. Review articles, methods papers, and consensus statements are cited at higher rates than typical primary research, which is why many journals commission them deliberately. Special issues built around active research questions concentrate citable work and cross-citation. Editorial strategy of this kind shapes the numerator over a multi-year horizon.
Shorten time to first citation. Faster, well-managed peer review and prompt online-ahead-of-print publication give articles more time inside the citation window. An article published in January has eleven more months to be cited that year than one published in December.
Promote articles to the readers most likely to cite them. Citations come from other authors, and authors are readers first. Putting your articles in front of researchers who are actively reading in the same field raises the probability that the article is read, used, and cited. This is where content recommendation does measurable work.
The evidence on article recommendation and citations
At TrendMD, we built a content recommendation engine for scholarly and medical publishers, now used across 9,600+ medical and scientific sites reaching 120M+ monthly unique researchers and HCPs. When a reader finishes an article, the widget recommends related articles from across the network, surfacing relevant recent work to an already-engaged academic audience. Because we wanted to know whether this actually changes citation outcomes rather than just clicks, we tested it in randomized controlled trials.
A randomized controlled trial of 3,200 articles, published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology in 2019, found that articles promoted through TrendMD received 50% more citations at 12 months than the control group (DOI: 10.1002/asi.24330). A 36-month follow-up of the same cohort, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in 2021, found the promoted articles retained a 28% citation advantage three years out (DOI: 10.2196/34051). The effect was durable, not a short-term spike.
A separate randomized controlled trial of 400 articles, published in Scientometrics in 2017, found that articles promoted through TrendMD received 77% more Mendeley saves (DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2438-3). Mendeley saves are a validated early predictor of future citations, so this result points in the same direction as the citation trials: better discovery upstream produces more citations downstream. The full methodology, sample sizes, and results for all three studies are summarized on our research page.
- +50% — Citations at 12 months (JASIST 2019 RCT, 3,200 articles)
- +28% — Sustained citation advantage at 36 months (JMIR 2021 follow-up)
- +77% — Mendeley saves, a validated citation predictor (Scientometrics 2017 RCT)
What this means for editors
Increasing your impact factor is not about gaming a metric. It is about getting your best recent work in front of the researchers most likely to read and cite it, quickly enough to land inside the two-year window. Commission citable content, move articles through review and online publication faster, and invest in the discoverability of your newest papers, because those are the articles the impact factor is actually counting.
Article recommendation is one of the few discoverability levers with peer-reviewed, randomized evidence behind it. For publishers, the TrendMD widget that recommends related content within your own site is free to install, taking about ten minutes, and paid promotion across the network lets you set your own budget. You can see how it works, and review the evidence in full, on our publishers page.
Frequently asked questions
Does TrendMD increase citations?
Yes. A peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology showed articles promoted through TrendMD received 50% more citations at 12 months, and a 36-month follow-up in JMIR showed a sustained 28% increase compared to control.
What is the evidence that TrendMD increases impact factor?
TrendMD increases citations, which are the basis of the impact factor calculation. One RCT showed 50% more citations at 12 months; a second RCT showed 77% more Mendeley saves, a validated predictor of future citations.
How do I install the TrendMD widget?
The widget installs via two lines of JavaScript in your page footer and one line of HTML where you want recommendations displayed. WordPress users can install the TrendMD plugin. Setup takes about 10 minutes.
