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Journal impact analyses the reach and influence of a journal. It is based on the citations of the article published within that journal and is best used to compare the relative scores compared to similar journals in that field.

Why is journal impact important?

  • Supports decision-making when deciding to publish
  • Helps identify prestigious and relevant journals for sourcing information
  • Tracks the performance and impact of a journal over time

Limitations:

  • Not a perfect measure of relevance to specific research questions
  • Not a correlation with article impact
  • Not applicable for comparison between different fields of resarch

Common Journal Metrics

The below table provides an overview of several common, journal-level metrics, their use and limitations, and where to find your own.

Metric Site Use Limitations
Journal Impact Factor (JIF) Journal Citation Reports The number of citations divided by the number of published items in a journal over a 2 year period

Use only when comparing journals within the same discipline

MH does not subscribe to this database
CiteScore Scopus Preview

Average number of weighted citations received in a year divided by number of documents published in the previous 3 years

 Use only when comparing journals within the same discipline
H index Scimago Indicates the number of papers (h) the journal has published that have been cited at least (h) times Use only when comparing journals within the same discipline
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 

Scimago

Scopus Preview 

 Average number of weighted citations received in a year divided by number of documents published in previous 3 years Does not provide information on newer journals (began in the last 4 years)

Other journal level metrics include: Journal Citation Indicator, Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), Eigenfactor (EF), Google Scholar Metrics.

Recommended resources:

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