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For example, the top-cited paper of 381 journals caused their IF to increase by more than 0.5 points, while for 818 journals the relative increase exceeded 25%. One in 10 journals had their IF boosted by more than 50% by their top three cited papers. Because the single-paper effect on the IF is inversely proportional to journal size, small journals are rewarded much more strongly than large journals for a highly cited paper, while they are penalized more for a low-cited paper, especially if their IF is high. This skewed reward mechanism incentivizes high-IF journals to stay small to remain competitive in rankings. We discuss the implications for breakthrough papers appearing in prestigious journals. We question the reliability of IF rankings given the high IF sensitivity to a few papers that affects thousands of journals.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/qss_a_00037","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,23]],"date-time":"2020-03-23T16:36:47Z","timestamp":1584981407000},"page":"639-663","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Impact factor volatility due to a single paper: A comprehensive analysis"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"1","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6174-0668","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Manolis","family":"Antonoyiannakis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Physics & Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, 500 W. 120th St., Mudd 200, New York, NY 10027"},{"name":"American Physical Society, Editorial Office, 1 Research Road, Ridge, NY 11961-2701"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025073014023024700_bib1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Adler,  R., Ewing,  J., & Taylor,  P. 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