Richard Russell,1 Dave Singh21Wrexham Park Hospital, Berkshire, UK; 2Northwest Lung Research Centre, South Manchester University Hospitals Trust, Manchester, UKThis statement was adopted unanimously at the May 17, 2009 meeting of the International Respiratory Journal Editors Roundtable.In our collective experience as editors of international peer-reviewed journals, we propose that the impact factor calculated for individual journals should not be used as a basis for evaluating the significance of an individual scientist’s past performance or scientific potential. There are several reasons not to equate the impact factor of a journal in which the scientist publishes with the quality of the scientist’s research.