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.
