LibGuides: Tracking Research Impact: Journal Metrics

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Examples of Journal Metrics

Journal metrics assess the impact of an academic journal. Journal metrics can be useful to help identify high-quality journals to publish in, which in turn can influence the impact your research will have. However, it is important to remember that journal metrics should not be applied to an article, and there is plenty of high-quality research published in lower-ranked journals.

CiteScore
CiteScore is journal metric developed by Elsevier that calculates the citation impact of journals.
CiteScore is based on the number of citations to documents (articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters, and data papers) by a journal over four years, divided by the number of the same document types indexed in Scopus and published in those same four years.
SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)
SJRs are based on information obtained from Elsevier's Scopus database which includes more than 18,500 titles from 5,000 publishers. The SJR indicator measures the scientific influence of the average article in a journal, it expresses the average number of weighted citations received in the selected year by the documents published in the selected journal in the three previous years. SJR also normalizes for differences in citation behavior between subject fields.
SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
SNIP is a metric developed by researchers at the University of Leiden's Centre for Science and Technology Studies. It takes into account differences in citation patterns across disciplines using Elsevier's Scopus database data. SNIP measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field.
Impact Factor
The journal impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal indexed by Web of Science has been cited in a particular year.
Eigenfactor
The Eigenfactor™ score is a measure of the overall value provided by all of the articles published in a given journal in a year. Eigenfactor uses Thomson Reuters citation data in Journal Citation Reports or at http://www.eigenfactor.org
Article Influence
The Article Influence™ Score determines the average influence of a journal's articles over the first five years after publication.
The score is normalized so that the mean article in the entire JCR database has an an article incluence of 1.00. A value above 1.0 indicates above average influence.

Guidelines for Evaluating Journals

Think. Check. Submit
Launched in 2015, Think. Check. Submit. helps researchers identify trusted journals for their research. Through a range of tools and practical resources, this international, cross-sector initiative aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications. Central to the initiative is a checklist based on best practices in scholarly communication.
Journal Quality Indicators
List of both Positive and Negative Indicators to help evaluate publications. Compiled by librarians at Grand Valley State University (USA).
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
Criteria developed from a collaboration among: The Committee on Publication Ethics, the Directory of Open Access Journals, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association and the World Association of Medical Editors.
COPE
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) provides advice and flowcharts on publication ethics.

Ranked and Core Journals Lists

Journals can also be evaluated based on assessment methods or inspection by experts. Below are some journal lists compiled by universities, professional organizations or research centers. Some are specific to a discipline.

45 Journals used in FT Research Rank
Details the 45 journals used by the Financial Times in compiling the Business School research rank, included in both the Global MBA and EMBA rankings.
AASL Core Periodicals List
The AASL (Association of Architecture School Librarians) Core Periodicals List is intended for a first-degree-program in architecture (for architecture libraries in North America).
AIGA Resources RE: Design Research and Scholarship
List of journals and organizations that foster or support design research and scholarship. Many of these host peer-reviewed conferences and publish their conferences’ proceedings. Some facilitate juried exhibitions and workshops.
ARCLIB Core Journals List
UK librarians' list of core journals includes: architecture, interior design, housing & urban planning, and civil engineering.
Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Quality Guide (ABS Guide)
A British guide to the relative quality of journals in which business and management academics might publish the results of their research.
Association of Information Systems' Journal Rankings
The Association for Information Systems' Journal Rankings edited by Carol Saunders, covers the areas of management information systems.
Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal List 2013
A journal quality list ranking journals in 15 sub-disciplines in business, economics and law. It is also incorporated into the Journal Quality List (above).
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH)
Compiled by European Science Foundation. Places journals in three ranks - INT1 (international with high visibility); INT2 (international with significant visibility); NAT (of significance in a particular country)
Excellence in Australian Research (ERA)
Assesses research quality within Australia's higher education institutions
•ERA 2010 - A single quality rating of A*, A, B or C
•ERA 2012 - A journal list without ranking
Harzing.com Journal Quality List (JQL)
Compiled and edited by Dr. Anne-Wil Harzing to assist academics to target papers at journals of an appropriate standard, the JQL is a collation of published lists or journal ranking lists from various universities in the broad areas of economics, finance, accounting, management and marketing, tourism, psychology and sociology. "Publish or Perish", a free software for analyzing citations in Google Scholar, is available for download from this site.
Master Journal List by Thomson Reuters
Maintained by Thomson Reuters to include core literature only. Less influential journals are removed and new quality journals are added to reflect the evolution of scholarly topics. Includes the list of Arts & Humanities Citation Index Source Publications which are not calculated in JCR
MLA Directory of Periodicals
As journal ranking information is limited for humanities journals alternative metrics may need to be found. One such metric is the rejection rate for a publication. -- In the MLA Directory (available through MLA International Bibliography) click on Search and then Directory of Periodicals. Next enter a journal and Search button. If found, click on the journal title to bring up the full Directory entry. The difference between Articles Submitted Per Year and Articles Published Per Year gives the rejection rate
Scopus Source List by Elsevier
Thousands of peer-reviewed journals, preliminary findings from millions of conference papers, and analysis in an expanding collection of books. Content indexed in Scopus comes from 5,000 publishers from around the world.

Tracking Research Impact

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Getting Help

Examples of Journal Metrics

Guidelines for Evaluating Journals

UlrichsWeb

Ranked and Core Journals Lists