Journal Impact Factor

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is calculated by dividing the number of citations received by the articles of a journal by the total number of articles published in the journal during the two previous calendar years.

Journal Impact Factors can be found in Journal Citation Reports, a subscription-based resource that is available through Western Libraries.

Limitations of Journal Impact Factor:

  • Only calculates citations for publications that are indexed by Web of Science.
  • Can only be used to evaluate journals within disciplines, not between them.
  • Excludes journals covered by the Arts & Humanities Citation Index because their citation patterns are different.
  • Most journals are in English and from the developed world, although the Emerging Sources Citation Index is an effort to address that.
  • Can be strongly influenced by outlier articles.
  • Review articles tend to raise impact factor.