Measuring the impact of local research: a case of the Medical Journal of Zambia

Knowledge production is critical to the success of the health care industry. Knowledge production requires a publication outlet in which the knowledge product may be published and made available to the relevant constituency. Once knowledge is produced, it requires utilisation, and critically that the manner in which knowledge is utilised is required for the continuous process of knowledge production. However, it is difficult to measure the impact of a journal that has not been indexed in major international databases. How then, does one decide how important such a journal is to its local community? How does one measure the impact of a journal that does not have traditional measuring metrics, a journal without an Impact Factor? In academia, impact factor metrics have been the internationally accepted norm of measuring research output impact. The Medical Journal of Zambia is a journal that is published by the Medical Association of Zambia, a membership body of Medical Doctors in Zambia. The Medical Journal of Zambia is published every year on a quarterly basis, with articles in different medical specialties as well as those that are at the intersection of medicine, health and the social economic, environment and political sphere. This paper looks at alternative ways of measuring the impact of local research output by utilising the Medical Journal of Zambia as a case study.