Journal Impact Factor (JIF)

What is it?

The Journal Impact Factor or JIF is based on Web of Science data that calculates the number of citations received in the year from articles, reviews and proceedings papers, published in the previous 2 years. It is updated on an annual basis for publications indexed in Web of Science. 

It can't be used to compare journals across different disciplines. 

How do I use it?

You can use the JIF for assistance making decisions in where to publish. The metrics for the journal should not be the only tools you use to select where to publish. Always check the aims and scope of the journal to ensure your research fits. 

To search for an individual journal: 

1. Login to Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 
2. Type the name of the journal into the search box and select it from the list that appears
3. The journal information is displayed at the top of the page. Scroll down to see the journal's performance
   • Journal Impact Factor (JIF) with and without self-citations
   • Contributing items to the JIF (citable items and citing sources)
   • The JIF trend for the previous 5 years in a subject category
   • Journal Citation Indicator (JCI)
   • Total citations
   • Citation distribution
   • Open Access (OA) data
   • Rank by JIF
   • Rank by JCI
   • Citation network including the cited half-life and the citing half-life
   • The journal citation relationships
   • The content metrics including the source data, the average JIF percentile, contributions by organisations and contributions by country/region
   • Additional metrics including the Eigenfactor score, Normalized Eigenfactor, Article influence score, 5 year impact factor and the Immediacy index

Descriptions of what these metrics are and how they are calculated are provided on the page. More information from Clarivate can be found on the Journal Citation Reports - Journal Profile Help pages.

To search for a list of ranked journals:

1. Login to Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 
2. For all journals indexed in Web of Science: Click on the Journals tab at the top of the screen
3. For a list of journals in a subject category: Click on the Categories tab at the top of the screen
4. Select one of the 21 Subject areas:
   • Select a category from within that subject area
   • The default indicators are the total citations; the JIF for that year; the JIF Quartile; the JCI for that year and the % of OA Gold (journal based open access)
   • Customise the indicators to include other impact metrics (such as JIF Rank); Normalised metrics (such as the JCI rank) and the Source metrics (such as the number of citable items)
5. Export the list (up to the top 600) as an .xls or .csv file to analyse further.