La Trobe University

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ERA: Impact Factors

Journal Impact Factors - Thomson ISI

An impact factor is a measure used to determine the importance of a journal to its field. Journal Impact Factors are included in the Journal Citation Reports developed by Thomson ISI (Institute for Scientific Research). Its principal aim is to measure the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period. The annual JCR impact factor is a ratio between citations and recent citable items published. Thus, 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 and can be considered to be the average number of times published papers are cited up to two years after publication.

For further information please look at:

Other ways to measure journal quality include:

  • the peer review process undertaken to publish
  • the rejection rates of journal articles
  • the rejection rates of individual journals
  • the prestige of the journal's editorial committee or board
  • and the prestige of the publisher and/or database which abstracts, indexes or publishes a journal
Searching for a known journal title
  1. Go to the Journal Citation Reports: JCR database page
  2. Select either JCR Science Edition or JCR Social Science Edition.
  3. Under Select an Option choose Search for a specific journal. Click on Submit.
  4. Type in the name of the journal name and click on Search.
  5. If the journal is listed in the Journal Citation Reports you should now see a Journal Summary List. This should include such information as the impact factor, the total number of citations and the number of articles for 2005.
  6. Select the Abbreviated Journal Title to obtain further information.
  7. Click on the link for Impact Factor Trend to see the impact factor graph and the impact factor figures for the last 5 years. (This is a comparison of each year for the journal title but not a comparison of this title with others in the field).
To compare this title with other titles in the field.
  1. Click on the Return to Journal button 
  2. Select the View journal summary list. This will bring up a list of all titles in the same subject area.  
  3. The list of results should be sorted by Journal title.  Change the sort option to Sort by Impact Factor to rearrange the results. Click on the Sort Again button.
To locate the impact factor within a specific subject category.
  1. Go to the Journal Citation Reports:JCR database page
  2. Under Select an Option choose View a group of journals by: and then choose a category from the drop down menu. Click on the Submit button.
  3. Select one or more subject categories from the list. Click on the Submit button.
  4. The list of results should be sorted by Journal title. If you change the sort option to Impact Factor it will rearrange the results. Click on the Sort Again button.
  5. Click on a journal title to go through to the Journal Information page. On this page you will see a Category Data button. Click on this to bring up the impact factors for the journals within that subject category. It brings up the aggregate impact factor, the median impact factor, etc.
What coverage does La Trobe University have on the Web of Science?
  1. Go to the Web of Knowledge database page
  2. Select the Web of Science
  3. Click on the Advanced Search option
  4. In the search box enter the following search       AD=(la trobe AND univ)
  5. This retrieves all records with La Trobe University as the address.
  6. Click on the Analyze button (to the right of the screen). This allows you to analyse the results by subject category, author etc.

The ISI Help option provides further information on each Journal Citation page that you are viewing.

Australian University Indicators

The Australian University Indicators (AUI) is a database of summary publication and citation statistics that reflect research performance by over 51 universities and research institutes during the years 1981-2006.

The database contains publication and citation counts taken from the peer-reviewed journals indexed by Thomson Scientific. A list of the journals is contained in the dataset.
To obtain a copy of the Australian University Indicators CD-ROM please see your Subject Librarian.

To select an Institution

  1. Click on the Select Institutions tab to select one or more institutions. Scroll through the list to identify relevant institutions.
  2. Double click on a name to add it to your Selected Institution list.
  3. Click on the Remove Institution button to remove a highlighted institution from your list.

To select a field

  1. Click on the Select Field tab. Scroll through the list to identify relevant institutions.
  2. Double click on a name to add it to your Selected Field list.
  3. Click on the Remove Field button to remove a highlighted field from your list.

Specifying an analysis

1. Specify an analysis by selecting one option from each of the three boxes on the “Specify Analysis” tabbed window.

Level of Analysis:

  • Field within Institution:  Use this if you have selected one or more institutions and fields to analyze.
  • Overall Institution:  Use this if you have selected one or more institutions but no fields.
  • Overall Field:  Use this if you have selected one or more fields but no institutions.

Time period for Analysis: Defines the time periods covered by the papers and citations that are being counted.

Type of Analysis: Specifies the type of numerical measure to use, including -

  • Citation Impact: number of citations received per paper published
  • Total citations: number of citations received in time period
  • Number of papers: number of papers published during time period.
  • Percent cited papers: number of papers cited during period divided by the number of papers published during period
  • Impact relative to field: citation impact for university in a field divided by citation impact for the field as a whole, worldwide
  • Impact relative to institution: citation impact for university in a field divided by the citation impact for the university as a whole, across all fields
  • Percentage papers in field: number of papers for university in a field divided by the total number of papers in the field
  • Percentage papers in institution: number of papers for university in a field divided by the total number of papers for the university
  • Percent cited relative to field: percentage of cited papers for university in a field divided by the percentage of cited papers for the field as a whole
  • Percent cited relative to institution: percentage of cited papers for university in a field divided by the percentage of cited papers for the university as a whole

2. After you have selected your choices from the three boxes in the “Specify Analysis” tabbed window, click the "Run Analysis" button.  A table of data will display in the Results window.

Sorting data

Data is presented in alphabetical order by institutional name and, within institution, by field and time period.  Data can be ranked within the table in the “Results” window by using the pull-down menu option or clicking the “Rank” button at the base of the display window.

Displaying Graphs

To display a graph or chart, click the "Show Graph" option or button. The 5 most recent years or 26-year cumulative time period data are plotted as a bar graph.

Copying information

You can copy a portion of the table to the Clipboard for input to another application. Highlight the internal area of the table by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the pointer down until all the targeted rows and columns are highlighted. Release the mouse button and click the "Clip" option.
Toggle to another application such as Word or Excel and use Ctrl-V or the Edit menu to "paste" or drop the data into the document or spreadsheet. Toggle back to the Indicators and continue the analyses.

What if journals in my subject area do not have an impact factor?

Impact factors are only one measure of journal quality. Others include the peer review process undertaken to publish, the rejection rates of journal articles, the prestige held by the journal's editorial committee or board and the prestige of the database which abstracts, indexes or publishes your journal. 

  • Ensure that the journal is peer reviewed and identify the process undertaken to review it (double blind peer reviewed; panel reviewed etc)
  • Determine who is on the Editorial Committee or Board and what position they hold as a scholar in your research community
  • Identify the rejection rates of articles in your journals
    • this information is usually available on either the website of the journal or the inside cover
  • Determine where the journal is abstracted and/or indexed and identify whether citation information is included on the database