Research Guides: Research Impact Toolkit: Media & Communication: Journal Impact

What is Journal Impact (Or, where am I publishing?)

The impact factor is an indicator of journal quality. A measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year, the impactor factor is calculated by dividing the number of current citation to articles published in the two previous years by the total number of articles published in the two previous years. Ultimately, the impact factor helps researchers evaluate a journal's relative importance, especially when compared to others in the same field.

Keep in mind that not all journals are ranked. For example, in literary studies, few impact factors exist for specific journals, largely because literary scholars tend to cite primary texts more than secondary ones. This makes it crucial to determine a journal's overall impact by its availability and presence. Try using the following sources.

Tools for Determining Journal Impact

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) This link opens in a new window
Provides statistical data about the impact factor of science and social science journals.

View this tutorial on determining impact factors of journals in Journal Citation Reports for additional information.

Ulrich's Periodical Directory This link opens in a new window
Provides bibliographic and access information for scholarly and academic publications, consumer and trade magazines, and other serial publications.

Information available in Ulrich's that is indicative of journal impact includes:

“Academic/Scholarly” designation (an indicator of quality)
Refereed status (an indicator of quality)
Circulation statistics (an indicator of quantity)
Journal description and reviews
Indication of inclusion in Journal Citation Reports
Abstracting/Indexing services that provide access to the content of the journals (The more services that abstract and index a journal, the more widely disseminated the information is, and the greater the impact.).
Document Delivery Services (If the journal is available through document delivery services, this serves as an indicator of its importance as these delivery services chose to make available journals that have merit.).

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
A union catalog, WorldCAT is the combined catalog of thousands of libraries worldwide. The number of libraries that own or provide online access to a journal is an indication of the impact and imporance of the journal. WorldCAT provides the truest indication of the total number of libraries that subscribe to a journal.

To search WorldCAT:

In the "Advanced Search" tab, search by title or ISSN, and limit to "Serial Publications."
Identify the correct journal from the search result.
Note the number associted with the "Libraried Worldwide" link. Select "Libraries Worldwide" link, followed by "Display All Libraries" to receive complete library holdings. The "Libraries Worldwide" link only displays local libraries.
Email, print, or export results.
Note: Keep in mind you may see multiple record listings of the same journal in the search result. This may be due to format differences (e.g. print, electronic) and/or differences in cataloging practices. Be sure to recognize and count those when necessary.

Project Muse This link opens in a new window
If a journal is included in Project Muse, this is an indicator of a quality publication because of its commitment to preserving journal content. Only those deemed important are included in Project Muse.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
If a journal is included in JSTOR, this is an indicator of a high quality publication because specialists and scholars vote to decide which journals are key in each field. Only those deemed most important are included in JSTOR.

Journal Ranking Sites on the Web

eigenFACTOR.org - ranking and mapping scientific knowledge
The Eigenfactor approach to assessing journals is to rank them the way Google ranks Web pages. While Google uses the network of hyperlinks to identify relevancy and importance in Web pages, this site uses citations in the academic literature as tallied by JCR (Journal Citation Reports) in order to identify the most "influential" journals. The Eigenfactor score claims to offer a rough estimate of how often a journal will be used by scholars.
Philosophy Journal Information: ESF Rankings, Citation Impact & Rejection Rates
Journals are classified into three groups–journals of primarily disciplinary interest (type 1), journals of extra-disciplinary interest (type 2), and history journals (type 3). Type 2 journals tend to elicit higher citation rates than type 1 journals, and both of these tend to elicit higher citation rates than type 3 journals.
APA Journal Statistics and Operations Data
Provides information about manuscript rejection rates, circulation data, publication lag time, and other journal statistics.
Journal M3trics: Research Analytics Redefined
The academic community has long been demanding more transparency, choice and accuracy in journal assessment. Currently, the majority of academic output is evaluated based on a single ranking of journal impact. Bibliometricians have been exploring new methods to provide deeper insight. Within the field of journal evaluation, two of the most exciting are Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) and SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), those values are provided here free of charge.

Some content courtesy of Susan Ariew, Academic Services Librarian for Education at University of South Florida Library, and her Library and Information Resources Related to Promotion and Tenure guide.