Key message The Editorial Board of Annals of Oncology should be encouraged to moderate the race to a high IF. J.C. Soria, Editor in Chief of the journal, recently wrote an editorial which resounds like a hymn of praise to the impact factor []. Having remarkably reached the objective of raising the impact factor (IF) to 10, the Editor is now setting an even greater challenge by striving for an IF of 12 by 2018. As an author of numerous articles in the journal ever since its foundation, I feel …