The document provides information about journal impact factors. It defines impact factor as the number of citations in the current year to items published in a journal in the previous two years, divided by the total number of source items published in the previous two years. It notes that impact factors can only be calculated after a journal has been publishing for at least three years. The document also explains that impact factors measure the frequency of citations but not necessarily the quality of a journal. It provides an example calculation of an impact factor.

8. Basic Definitions

11. Timing

14. Calculation




For example, the impact factor 2010 for a journal would
be calculated as follows:
A = the number of times articles published in 2008-9
were cited in indexed journals during 2010
B = the number of articles, reviews, proceedings or
notes published in 2008-2009
Impact factor 2010 = A/B

19. Calculating the BMJ‟s impact factor for
2003

21. following key points related to
Journal Impact factor
Journal Impact Factor can not be calculated for new
journals. I mean “the impact factor of a journal is
calculated by dividing the number of current year
citations to the source items published in that journal
during the previous two years”, hence impact factor can
be calculated after completing the minimum of 3 years of
publication.
 ••••Journal Impact Factor will be a quotient factor only
and will not be a quality factor.
 ••••Journal Impact Factor will not be related to quality of
content and quality of peer review, it is only a measure
of the frequency with which the "average article" in a
journal
 has been cited in a particular year or period.


22.  C1+C2
S1+S2
C1 denotes the number of citations received by S1
source items in the year Y
C2 denotes the number of citations received by S2
source items in the year Y
S1 denotes the number of source items published
in the journal J in the year Y-1.
S2 denotes the number of source items published
in the journal J in the year Y-2

23. Example
 Suppose
the journal j has published 32
and 36 sources in 2007 and
2008
respectively. These source items have
received respectively 40 and 28 citations
in 2009.Now the impact factor of the
journal j will be
40+28/32+36=1

25. Features

27. Uses

28. „Abstracts are not defined as source
items
 and so even if they only attract a few
citations,
 there is a benefit to the Impact Factor‟


29. The impact factor is only one of three
standardized
 measures created by the Institute of
Scientific Information
 (ISI) which can be used to measure the
way a journal
 receives citations to its articles over
time.


30. The best way to keep track of
who is citing you.

•Have a very complete copy of your
publications

•Use Web of Science and Google
Scholar. They will produce overlapping
and unique results

31. 
•The Impact Factor is a an attempt to ensure the
impact a journal has.

•It is designed to “scale” the number of times a
journal has been cited.

•The older an article is, the more opportunities it
has to have been cited.

•Some disciplines have more people working in
them (child psychology vs. demography; surgery
vs. mycology)

34. Science and Social Science
editions must be searched
separately
Before starting, click on
Information for New
Users and read “Using
the JCR Wisely.”

35. You can search by Full
Journal Title, Journal
Abbreviation, Title Word,
or ISSN. Select Title
Word from the menu.

36. Click on title
link to display
full record.

37. Review articles are often more highly cited
than original research articles: consider a
journal’s source data by document type.



Tallies the number of original research and review articles published in the current year (2005)
Also tallies the number of references published by the selected journal in the current year
Other Items = document types not included in the number of citable items published by this journal (e.g.
letters, news items, editorials, etc.)

38. References to all
older articles.
Publication year of
cited article.
A list of journals
which have cited
AtmosphereOcean within 2004

39. Citing Journal List
The publication year of
the articles being cited
A list of journals that
Atmosphere-Ocean has
cited within 2004.

40. Impact Factor Trend Graph

41. Examine Subject
Categories