Tabriz University of Medical Sciences Depiction of Health 2008-9058 4 2 2013 09 11 A Short Review on Journal Impact Factor; Significance and Defects 43 46 EN Masoud Eisa Khajelou Vahideh Zarea Gavgani REVIEW Impact Factor (IF) is considered as one of the most common subjects in academic environments. Individuals who would like to publish their productions and/or research results confront with various indicators, brands and labels that indicate relative importance, academic discipline and quality of journals. Diversity of the indicators induces confusion to select applicable journals and often, the authors would not be able to distinguish IF, ISI and their relations with the acceptance of the journal. Meanwhile, they have difficulties to find IF. Hence, this short paper aimed to provide useful information for authors to familiarize them with the concept of IF.