"I would like to comment on the statement by Prof. H-J. Oestern and Prof. J. Probst of the German Trauma Society which appeared in the October 1997 issues of your journal as well as the Anaesthesist. The authors assert that the work of German specialists in these fields is published "primarily" in German language journals. And without any supporting data they assert that the impact factor is not appropriate for judging scientific achievements in trauma surgery and most important that "its use leads to an unjustified disadvantage in comparison with other fields." Where has it been written that such comparisons should be made? In a series of unrelated assertions, none of which are supported by data, claims of bias are made repeatedly. Would these authors assert that German scientists, even in trauma surgery, do not publish in the international journals? In 1997, scientists from Germany published over 77,000 papers in Science Citation Index covered journals -- almost 7.8% of the total ISI database. About 12,000 of those articles were published in German."