A Challenge for Clinical Pharmacologists: How Can We Measure Scientific Impact of Publications in Drug Development and in Regulatory Decision Making?

Many articles in clinical pharmacology may highly influence drug development and regulatory decision making, far beyond the measure conveyed by the Journal Impact Factor. Quantifying impact from the grey content (e.g., nonpublished information) remains an evolving dilemma. A collaboration is proposed with library scientists and bioinformaticians to develop methods to measure the impact of grey content on drug development and regulatory decision making. Mechanisms to reward this impact are discussed.