Research Guides | Databases A-Z | Library Catalog | Ask a Librarian | Library Home Page | SUNY New Paltz |
Criteria for evaluating journals
The JIF is a statistical measure used to indicate the influence of a journal in a particular field. The annual JIF is a ratio between citations and recent articles published. The fewer articles a journal publishes, and the more times those articles are cited in the next two years, the higher the journal's "impact." The JIF is computed annually by the Global Institute for Scientific Information and reported in the JCR database. The Library does not have access to the JCR database.
You can read more about how the JIF is calculated on the Thomson Reuters website, linked below.
There are serious questions concerning the JIF and other statistical measures for journal evaluation.
JIF is one of many statistical measures developed to measure the quality of journals. While the use of citation data can provide information about the influence of a journal within certain fields, there are serious limitations to the JIF and all other statistical methods.
While some disciplines, consider impact factors as indicators that help them to determine important journals, other fields do not use impact factors. Also there is debate as to the reliability of impact factors
Among the concerns are:
For an introduction to JIF and other statistical measures for citation analysis and how they are used to evaluate the importance of a journal in a particular field, see the University of Michigan guide below.
Below are links to free sources for a variety of journal ranking systems:
The websites of many academic journals include the journal impact factor or an alternative ranking number
The websites of many publishers include the journal impact factor or an alternative ranking number: