About Impact Factors
What are Journal Impact Factors?
Impact Factor as measured in ISI’s Journal Citation Reports is “a measure of the frequency with which the ‘average article’ in a journal has been cited in a particular year.” The idea is that the collective citation frequency for articles in a journal title is an indicator of journal quality and importance. While this may be true to some degree, one needs to keep in mind that there are other factors that influence citation frequency. One factor that stands out is that JCR tracks only about 7,000 journal titles, and the titles that are tracked change through time. Another concern is that the number of people who research and publish in a given discipline or subject varies as does the quantity of publications. This influences the impact factor value. Also, the ‘fit’ of ISI subject classification to subject content in a given journal title is necessarily variable. So, impact factor can be used to measure a title’s popularity. However, use of the measure as a research quality indicator needs careful consideration.
How are they used?
Journals are often measured by their Significance and Selectivity. Is this journal significant to the field? Sometimes the top journal in the discipline is not the right place to publish one's research. Check out the journal for fit and for significance to the researchers who are working specifically in similar research areas. Where are other researchers publishing? Where can one's research receive the proper attention? Also look into how selective the journal is in its publication. Do they accept any manuscript they receive or only a small percentage? How long is the review process? You may have to contact the publisher or editing board to find out this information.
Further reading:
- Garfield, E. (2005, September 16). The agony and the ecstasy: The history and meaning of the Journal Impact Factor. International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication.
- Walters, W. H. (2016). Information Sources and Indicators for the Assessment of Journal Reputation and Impact. Reference Librarian, 57(1), 13-22. doi:10.1080/02763877.2015.1088426
Online Resources
- Journal Citation Reports This link opens in a new windowCoverage: 2004–present. Provides statistics on journals, including impact factor.
Terms of use - Web of Science This link opens in a new windowCoverage: 1989–present. Access to Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, and/or Arts & Humanities Citation Index. This resource has broad, multidisciplinary coverage of scholarly articles. A feature that is somewhat unique to this resource is citation searching; using an important historic reference one can see the more recent articles that cited the key reference. Part of Web of Knowledge.
Terms of use
- Google ScholarA subset of Google that only searches books, articles, and dissertations. When you're on campus, the Colgate Article Linker will show up beside articles. Otherwise, use the Journal Finder to locate article full text.
- Gale Directory Library This link opens in a new windowA collection of digital reference directories.
Terms of use
- Harzing Journal Quality ListThe Journal Quality List is a collation of journal rankings from a variety of sources. It is published primarily to assist academics to target papers at journals of an appropriate standard. We would be concerned if the list were used for staff evaluation purposes in a mechanistic way.
- Google Scholar MetricsGoogle Scholar Metrics provide an easy way for authors to quickly gauge the visibility and influence of recent articles in scholarly publications. Scholar Metrics summarize recent citations to many publications, to help authors as they consider where to publish their new research.
- Journal Metrics3 metrics by Scopus/Elsevier
- Scimago Journal & Country RankingThe SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database/Elsevier.
- EigenfactorThe Eigenfactor® Project is an academic research project co-founded in January 2007 by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West.
- Serials Directory This link opens in a new windowCoverage: current. Provides access to bibliographic information as well as contact information for serials.
Terms of use