PLEASE SUBSCRIBE OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL OPENKNOWLEDGE or see URL https://youtu.be/nPLnJqLEknY Research Indices are the indicators of the credibility and recognition of a researcher, a journal, an article and/or and institute. These include Impact Factor, immediacy Index, h-index etc. Researchers and students must know about these indices for better recognition in the academia and research. In the first part of the series we are discussing Impact Factor as a vital research Index. Impact factor (IF) is the most Important basis of selection of journal by the researchers and readers. Its a a measure of the reputation of a journal. IF is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. The OER shall cover how (IF is calculated), Who (provides the IF), on which factors IF depends upon, The importance of IF in academic recognition and knowing the IF of journal. Also SUBSCRIBE OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL OPENKNOWLEDGE or see https://youtu.be/nPLnJqLEknY

1. Indices of Research - I:
Impact Factor
Dr Ajay Semalty

2. Impact factor (IF)
• Most Important basis of selection of journal
• A measure of the reputation of a journal
• A measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a
journal has been cited in a particular year.
• A journal’s Impact factor is presented by a digit followed by year
and name of IF providing agency in brackets. e.g. on the home page
of Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery journal
(http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iedd20/current) 2016 Impact
Factor: 5.657 (© 2017 Clarivate Analytics, 2017 release of the JCR®)
• It’s a dynamic index which changes on the basis of citations and
number of papers every year.
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3. How ?: IF
• In any given year, the impact factor of a journal is the
number of citations, received in that year, of articles
published in that journal during the two preceding years,
divided by the total number of articles published in that
journal during the two preceding years.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor) Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
• For example a journal’s 2017 impact factor calculation will
be:
• IF(2017)= (Citations 2016 + Citations 2015)/ Published
papers 2016 + Published papers 2015
• IF(2017)=(1450 + 1550) / (150 + 260)= 4.878
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4. WHO? : IF
• Thomson Reuters
• The Institute for Scientific Information ISI
• Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®)
• Scopus-SJR
• Science Citation Index® (SCI®) and ESCI
• Social Sciences Citation Index® (SSCI®).
• Note: self declaration of IF by journals is not valid. These agencies
are globally recognized for analyzing and releasing the IF.
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5. IF depends on
• No. of papers published and citations
• Presence in various Indexing services
• Frequency of publication of journal
• Online nature and wide dissemination (OA)
• Publisher’s policies of self citation
• Nature of journals (Review only/ Interdisciplinary)
• Miscellaneous factors:
Manuscript/presentation/editorial quality
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6. Impact Factor in Academic Recognition
The Academic Performance Indicators (API) as prescribed by University Grants Commission of India for
Career Advancement Scheme and for assessing bio data of an academician for University Teaching jobs.
It allows 25 points for each research paper of a Refereed Journals as notified by the UGC (for single
author)
• This score for paper in the journal is augmented on the basis of impact factor:
• (i) paper with impact factor less than 1 - by 5 points;
• (ii) papers with impact factor between 1 and 2 by 10 points;
• (iii) papers with impact factor between 2 and 5 by 15 points;
• (iv) papers with impact factor between 5 and 10 by 20 points;
• (v) papers with impact factor above 10 by 25 points.
Therefore, higher the impact factor of the journal in which you have
• published higher will be your API score.
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7. So….
• Please be careful and not fall in the trap of predatory
journals who wrongly claim the high impact factor.
• If you want to verify the journal's IF, either you should have
the list of IF issued by the agencies or simply type the name
of journal in google search bar, if it would have the actual IF
the google would show in the box otherwise not….
(However it may not show you the current year IF)
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9. Other approaches
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http://www.citefactor.org/journal-impact-factor-list-2014_I.html
http://lms.uop.edu.jo/lms/mod/data/view.php?d=29&advanced=0&paging&pag
e=1 (ISI Thomson Reuters Impact Factor List 2017)
Or search individual publisher’s website like Bentham, Elsevier, Springer, chose
the journal from their list and then open the Main page-- IF will be shown if
exists with year and name of agency
But for other journals Don’t rely upon the IF shown in Main page; first check
whether the journal is indexed in SCI or ESCI by checking the website of SCI.

10. Concluding Remark
• You can publish your work in good journals
with impact factor even without paying even a
single penny.
• Just search and target a good journal and give
the justice to your hard work….
• Best of Luck friends……..
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11. Acknowledgment
• Faculty Development Centre, HNB Garhwal University (A Central University) Srinagar Garhwal, India
for providing the opportunity to participate in Short term course (STC-3) on Open Education
Resources (OER) in higher education.
• All the participants of STC-3 on OER in Higher Education (04-09 Sept. 2017).
• All the resource persons of STC Dr Inderdeep Sing (IIT Roorkee), Dr Reetesh Sah (HRDC, Kumaun
University), Dr Jagdamba Prasad (IGNOU, Dehradun), Dr Manas Ranjan Panigrahi (CEMCA), Prof S
Pani (Utakal University) Dr Divyakant Vaghelaa (INFLIB Gandhinagar), Dr Hitesh Solanki (INFLIB
Gandhinagar) Dr Manoj Diwakar (Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi), Dr Kiran Lata Dangwal (Lucknow
University) Prof Rajat Agrawal inspiring the OER development.
• Mr Lokesh Adhikari, Project Fellow, UGC-DAE CSR project in collaboration with BARC, Mumbai for
logistic and technical support.
• Dr Mona Semalty, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharm. Sciences, HNB garhwal University
Srinagar Garhwal for content writing and development.
• Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, HNB Garhwal University Srinagar Garhwal, India.
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12. Bibliography/Further readings
• Impact factor, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor
• Cross JO, Impact factors – The Basics, the e resource management Handbook,
https://www.uksg.org/sites/uksg.org/files/19-Cross-H76M463XL884HK78.pdf
• The Impact of Impact Factors, http://www.springer.com/gp/partners/society-zone-issues/the-
impact-of-impact-factors/4592
• Semalty M, Semalty A, Essentials of Research: A Mini Guide, 2012, ISBN 978-3-659-30545-0, LAP
Lambert Academic Publishing, Saarbrucken, Deutschland, Germany.
• Semalty et al. Art of Writing and Publishing in Pharmaceutical Journals, 2007, ISBN 81-88449-21-
0, Pharma Book Syndicate, Hyderabad, India.
• Bergstrom CT and West J, Comparing Impact Factor and Scopus CiteScore,
http://eigenfactor.org/projects/posts/citescore.php
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We will be back with other research indices soon….
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The OK Team
Dr. Ajay Semalty[M Pharm, PGDOM, MBA (OM), Ph D]
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
H.N.B. Garhwal University
Srinagar Garhwal-246174
INDIA
Visiting Scientist: Meijo University , Nagoya, Japan
semaltyajay@gmail.com
Dr. Mona Semalty [M Pharm, PGDOM, MBA (OM), Ph D]
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
H.N.B. Garhwal University
Srinagar Garhwal-246174
INDIA
monasemalty@gmail.com
Mr Lokesh Adhikari (M. Pharm (Pharmaceutics), Ph D (pursuing)
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
H.N.B. Garhwal University
Srinagar Garhwal-246174
INDIA
research.lokesh@gmail.com