LibGuides: Researcher Identity & Impact: Journal-level metrics

Journal-level metrics

Metrics:

Impact factor: measures the number of times an "average paper" in a journal is cited during a year. Calculated by Clarivate.

Calculation: A / B = Impact factor

(A) Total number of citations of citable items (B) published in the journal for the last two years

(B) Total number of citable items published in the journal for the last two years

E.g. if a journal has an impact factor of 3.0 this means it has published 1000 articles in the past two years that have been cited 3000 times in the current year. 3000 (2014) / 1000 (2012-2013) = 3.0

CiteScore: a journal metric used by the Scopus database that measures the average number of citations received per document (articles, reviews, conference & data papers, and book chapters) published in a journal in the preceding four years. Calculated by Scopus annually, each June.

Calculation: A / B = CiteScore

(A) Total number of citations to all items (B) published in the journal for the last four years

(B) Total number of all items published in the journal for the last four years

E.g. The CiteScore for the year 2023 for Journal A will be calculated by the number of citations to all items published in the period 2020-2023 and divided by the total number of publications for the same 4-year period.

CiteScore vs. Journal Impact Factor:

CiteScore	Journal Impact Factor
uses Scopus data	uses Web of Science data
uses a 4-year period	uses a 2-year period
includes all document types indexed by Scopus	only includes "citable documents" (articles and reviews)

H5 index: a variation of the h-index; it measures the number of highly-impactful (most cited) papers published in a journal in the last five years (by Google Scholar).

E.g. The Nature magazine has an H5-index of 467, meaning that 467 articles published between 2018-2022 have been cited at least 467 times each.

H5 median: the median number of citations for the articles that are included in the H5 index (by Google Scholar).

E.g. The median number of citations for the H5-index of the Nature magazine is 707 citations.

SCimago Journal Rankings (SJR): The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) is calculated by the SciMago Institute in Spain using Scopus data. SJR is a prestige metric for journals, book series, and conference proceedings that weighs the value of a citation based on the subject field, quality, and reputation of the source. It is based on the idea that “all citations are not created equal”.

Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): SNIP is calculated by CWTS of Leiden University using Scopus data. It is a ratio between the “Raw Impact per Paper” (a type of Citations per Publication calculation), actually received by the journal, compared to the “Citation Potential” of that journal’s field. SNIP takes differences in disciplinary characteristics into account and can be used to compare journals in different fields.

Eigenfactor: developed by a team of researchers at the University of Washington. Eigenfactor measures the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR).

Keep in mind that a journal with good appearing metrics can still be predatory. Consult our LibGuide for more information and tips for identifying Predatory Journals.

Where to find journal metrics?

Journal Impact factor can be found in Web of Science platform. You can access all journals indexed in the database from the Master Journal List or Journal Citation Reports (see below).

Journal Citation Reports is a tool by Web of Science designed to help you find and assess journals. You can access it from the WoS Product tab on the top right.

You can also explore journals through the Master journal list in Web of Science to search for journal titiles and view their metrics.

Cite score information can be found the Scopus platform. You can access publication information through the Sources tab (see below).

Go to Sources in Scopus to search for journal titiles and view their metrics.

Google Scholar provides information about the H5-index and H5-median. It is accessible from the Metrics tab - Top publications. You can choose different subject area from the Categories tab and view the publications with highest rank.