Measuring Journal Impact

Journal metrics describe citation patterns and other characteristics of scholarly journals. They can help researchers explore journals in a field, but no single metric establishes a journal's quality or the value of an individual article. When choosing a journal, also consider its scope, intended audience, indexing, editorial practices, publication model, and fit for your manuscript.

Journal Evaluation Resources

Journalytics Medicine
Journalytics Medicine provides curated information about medical journals, including scope, indexing, publication practices, fees, and available journal metrics. Its journal evaluations can help authors assess publication options. Journal listings and coverage change over time; consult the database for current details. Where available, Cabells Predatory Reports provides documented concerns about journals' publishing practices. Review the specific findings rather than relying on a label alone.

Smart Citations and scite
Some Journalytics records may provide scite-related citation information, including whether citing statements are classified as supporting, mentioning, or contrasting a publication. Features and access may change; consult the current Journalytics interface. Automated citation classifications require interpretation and do not by themselves establish whether a finding is valid.

Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
Journal Citation Reports, from Clarivate, provides the Journal Impact Factor, Journal Citation Indicator, journal rankings within subject categories, and other measures. Consult the MUSM JCR guide for current access instructions. Compare journals within appropriate subject categories and review the underlying citation distributions and journal characteristics.

Google Scholar Metrics
Google Scholar Metrics provides the h5-index and h5-median for eligible publications based on articles published during the previous five complete calendar years. Coverage and inclusion criteria differ from those of Web of Science and Scopus; metrics from different sources should not be treated as interchangeable.

Common Journal Metrics

Journal Impact Factor (JIF)
In a given JCR year, the JIF is the number of citations received that year to a journal's eligible items published in the preceding two years, divided by the number of citable items published in those two years. JCR also reports a five-year JIF. Citation practices differ across disciplines, and a journal average does not predict the impact or quality of any particular article.

Journal Citation Indicator (JCI)
A field-normalized citation measure in JCR. A value of 1.0 represents the average citation impact for the relevant category, document type, and publication year. It provides additional context when comparing journals, but should not be used alone.

Eigenfactor and Article Influence
Eigenfactor measures a journal's influence within a citation network over a five-year period, weighting citations according to the influence of the citing journals. Article Influence is a related per-article measure. These indicators answer different questions from the Journal Impact Factor. See Eigenfactor for explanations.

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)
SJR uses Scopus-based citation data and weights citations according to the influence of the citing sources. It can help compare journals, but database coverage and subject differences still matter.

Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)
SNIP uses Scopus citation data and accounts for differences in citation practices across fields. Consult the current CWTS Journal Indicators methodology when interpreting results.

h-index and h5-index
A journal has an h-index of h when at least h of its publications have each received at least h citations. The h5-index applies this calculation to publications from the last five complete calendar years. These measures depend on database coverage and the time window used.

Using Metrics Responsibly

• Use several indicators rather than treating a single number as a complete assessment.
• Check the year, database, subject category, and methodology behind each metric.
• Do not use a journal-level metric as a substitute for assessing an individual article or researcher.
• For journal selection, also review scope, indexing, peer review, publication fees, and author rights.

For help choosing a journal, visit Choosing & Evaluating Scholarly Journals. For potential article processing charge coverage, see Open Access Publishing.