More...
JCR "Impact Factor": How can it be used?
Posted on September 19, 2008
What do the phrases "JCR" and "impact factor" mean in the "JCR (Impact Factor)" link on the Library Web site? JCR stands for Journal Citation Reports. An "impact factor" is, stated briefly, the average number of citations in a year to those articles published in a particular journal during the previous two years.
For example, for a journal with an impact factor 1.220, on average each article published in the past two years was cited 1.220 times in the year being reported. With caveats, this number can be taken as a gauge of the importance of the typical article in that journal.
How might you use an impact factor? If you are considering submitting an article for publication to two journals, one with an impact factor of 1.220 and one with an impact factor of 3.503, you would probably submit the article first to the journal with the impact factor of 3.503, because articles in that journal are – on average – cited more frequently and therefore, theoretically, are read more than articles in the other journal.
JCR contains a wealth of information in addition to impact factors. For more about JCR, see the Information for New Users page and/or the tutorial on the JCR Web site. For caveats to keep in mind when using JCR, see the Using Journal Citation Reports Wisely page. A JCR Quick Reference Card is also availalble on the Library Web site.
Impact factors attempt to measure the overall impact of a particular journal. They do not quantify the impact of a particular article. You can find a further discussion of this and other aspects of impact factors in the Impact Factor article in Wikipedia.com.
JCR is published annually in two editons, both of which the Library offers:
- JCR Science Edition contains data from more than 5,900 journals in science and technology.
- JCR Social Sciences Edition contains data from more than 1,700 journals in the social sciences.
The link for JCR on the Library Web site is under the "Publication Support" heading.
