The authors look at the relation between journal rank (derived from impact factor) and various indicators, for example effect sizes reported, statistical power, etc. In summary, they found that the only thing journal rank strongly correlates with is the proportion of retractions and frauds. Another interesting finding is about the predictive power of journal rank on future citations. There is obviously a positive correlation since impact factor measures the number of citations. But it is really quite small (see my post on this). What is most interesting is that the predictive power started increasing in the 1960s, when the impact factor was introduced. This strongly suggests that, rather than being a quality indicator, the impact factor biases the citations of papers (increases the visibility of otherwise equally good papers). This paper also shows evidence of manipulation of impact factors by journals (including Current Biology, whose impact factor went from 7 to 12 after its acquisition by Elsevier), and is generally a good source of references on the subject.