Late Paleozoic strata in the southeastern Ordos Basin comprise targeted reservoirs for tight gas exploration. As a typical intracratonic basin, the Ordos Basin is characterized by low-accommodation space and a complex sediment infilling process, which attracts much attention. During the early Permian, the southeast area was fed by sediments from multiple sediment sources, which makes it difficult to identify the pinch-out of the sand bodies and reconstruct the sediment routing system. In this study, we reconstruct the paleo-topography of the late Paleozoic setting using high-resolution 2D and 3D seismic data. Thus, we identify two types of topography: the eastern block is presented as a semiclosed depression, and the western block is observed as a flat platform. Based on detrital zircon U–Pb data and heavy mineral assemblages, we reconstruct the provenance area and show that early Permian sediments originate from the northern margin of the Ordos Basin and from the northern Qinling orogenic belt in the south. By integrating the trace element contents, carbon and oxygen isotope data and sedimentary structure from core samples, we can observe the paleoenvironment and the corresponding facies associations in these blocks. The eastern block was infilled by a prograding delta; the western block was infilled by a tide-dominated delta or a wavy-dominated delta. By using stratigraphic forward modelling, we find that most sediments in the semiclosed setting are progradational and intensely interacted. In contrast, the sediments in the western block present an open setting, infilled and gently interacted. The fine-grained deposits were not easily preserved due to tidal or wave reworking processes in the shallow-water marine setting, and they were transported into deep-water areas. Furthermore, to explore the dominant factors in a pattern of fluvial–deltaic sand bodies formed in the low-accommodation basin, we rebuild the sediment routing system parameters and plot them on a bubble chart. According to the fitness between the depositional volume and the above parameters, we determine the key factors in the routing systems that formed. The results show that the sediment supply has a high relevance to the depositional volume in a semiclosed setting, such as the eastern block, while the terrain height may drive sedimentation in an open marine setting, such as the western block. We demonstrate that two different infill patterns and different sand-body stacking patterns with multiple sediment sources in a low-accommodation basin may serve as a model for similar settings.

Impact factor (IF) is a concept dating back over half a century, created to evaluate the impact of a journal within a particular scientific field. In spite of limitations, IF remains a widely used metric for journals to establish the average number of citations for articles published in a journal. The Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine (IJPM) recently received an IF of 5.1, the first IF for the journal. We believe that this is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our authors, reviewers, publishers and editorial board. The IJPM is the official research journal of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, and while psychiatry is the primary discipline of the journal, the current multidisciplinary approach will continue into the future. The journal has a strong Irish and international readership; while the journal will continue to publish research with an Irish focus, the editorial team are aware of the importance of ongoing global contributions to ensure the journal maintains high-quality publications of an international standard. This is an exciting time to be involved in mental health research, and the journal will continue to publish cutting edge themes with the goal of improving mental healthcare in Ireland and beyond.

Conservation research has a poor record of translating science into action. Previous surveys have investigated the lack of information exchange between researchers and practitioners by focusing on the uptake of peer-reviewed literature by practitioners from developed countries. They largely ignore conservation practitioners and researchers from developing countries, for whom accessing scientific data may be more difficult. This survey investigates how practitioners and researchers from developing countries access the scientific information needed in their work, and the place of peer-reviewed literature in this process. Our results suggest that practitioners access and use peer-reviewed literature; however, both practitioners and researchers mainly obtain information from open-access journals and do not base their choice on a journal's Impact Factor. Furthermore, researchers and practitioners in developing countries appear to be looking for more direct collaboration to ensure research is relevant to their needs, as well as more open-access journals and new ways to disseminate information.

One of the most popular indicators is the Impact Factor. This paper examines the coming into being of this highly influential figure. It is the offspring of Eugene Garfield’s experimentation with the huge amounts of data available at his Institute for Scientific Information and the result of a number of attempts to find appropriate measurements for the success (“impact”) of articles and journals. The completely inductive procedure was initially adjusted by examining the data thoughtfully and by consulting with experts from different scientific disciplines. Later, its calculation modes were imposed on other disciplines without further consideration. The paper demonstrates in detail the inopportune consequences of this, in particular for sociology. Neither the definition of disciplines, nor the selection of journals for the Web of Science/Social Science Citation Index follows any comprehensible rationale. The procedures for calculating the impact factor are inappropriate. Despite its obvious unsuitability, the impact factor is used by editors of sociological journals for marketing and impression management purposes. Fetishism!

This study looks at the international impact of leading economics journals published in Spain. For this purpose data were collected on the number of times that articles published in Spanish journals are cited in international journals on the ISI Journals lists. Constructing these kind of impact factor enables us to stablish a new ranking of Spanish leading journals arising from their international impact. This has been a neglected aspect in previous work that constructed impact factors for Spanish academic journals. Finally, the comparison of the results with those obtained for the leading Italian, French or German journals consents us to identify the basic elements which favour the internacionalization of these national economics journals.

Objectives: The study evaluated the extent to which quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and healthy-years equivalents (HYEs) were used in cost-utility studies over the past 20 years (1981–2000) as well as possible changes in the quality of journals reporting cost-utility studies.

Methods: Cost-utility studies were identified through an electronic search. For each study the journal name, date of publication, article's language and research origin, and the journal's impact factor were recorded.

Results: The number of published cost-utility studies increased in the last 20 years but has leveled off in 1997. Most studies were performed in the United States and were published in English. All studies except one used QALYs as an outcome measure. The mean journal's impact factor has changed slightly over the years.

Conclusions: Cost-utility studies would possibly gain more popularity if they were used as a vehicle in the decision-making process regarding healthcare budgets and were more visible in the scientific literature.