Journal metrics measure, compare, and rank research and scholarly publications. They can also be referred to as journal rankings, journal importance, or a journal's impact. Journal metrics allow scholars and researchers to compare scholarly periodicals.
Each journal ranking metric uses its own formula to determine a journal's importance to the research community. Many include counting the number of times the journal has been cited in other works. The differing formulas and methodology mean the results will differ from metric to metric.
Comparing results from more than one metric will provide a better picture of the real impact of a journal.
SJR, SNIP and CiteScore are the journal level metrics used by Scopus.
SJR: weights citations based on the source they come from.The subject field, quality and reputation of the journal have a direct effect on the value of a citation. SJR also normalizes for differences in citation behaviour between subject fields. More information is available at the provided link.
SNIP: stands for source normalised impact per paper and is derived by taking a journal’s citation count per paper and dividing it by the citation potential in its subject field. More information is available at the provided link.
CiteScore: calculates the average number of citations received in a calendar year by all items published in that journal in the preceding three years. The calendar year to which a serial title's issues are assigned is determined by their cover dates, and not the dates that the serial issues were made available online. More information is available at the provided link.
To find the SJR, SNIP and CiteScore for a journal:
click on the "Sources" link at the top of the Scopus search page
enter the name of the journal in the box located in the top right-hand corner, and click "Search"
a list of matching journal titles is displayed showing the SJR, SNIP and CiteScore for each one. Click on a journal title for more details about the publication
This module within Web of Science's InCites allows you to evaluate and compare journals using citation data drawn from Web of Science. Impact Factors and Journal Quartiles are provided for all the journals indexed by Web of Science.
Journal Citation Reports Impact Factor allows for the comparison and ranking of journals within the same discipline. The Impact Factor only measures the interest of other researchers in an article, not its importance and usefulness. More information about the Impact Factor is available on the JCR Impact Factor help page.
To find the Impact Factor of a journal:
carry out an author search in Web of Science
click on the title of the article which is published in the journal you're interested in to bring up the record of the article
scroll down to the 'Journal Information' section, and click on the 'Journal Citation Reports' link
this will take you into JCR and display the current and historical Impact Factor of the journal
To find the Journal Quartile in JCR:
scroll to the bottom of the page and click on 'Rank' on the bottom left hand menu
Google Scholar Metrics summarise recent citations to many publications, to help authors as they consider where to publish their new research. To get started, you can browse the top 100 publications in several languages, ordered by their five-year h-index and h-median metrics.
h5-index is calculated for articles published in the journal in the last 5 complete years. It is the largest number h such that h articles published in the last 5 complete years have at least h citations each.
h5-median is based on the h5-index. It is the median number of citations for each of the h articles included in that journal's h5-index.
An example
If a journal has published 60 articles in the last 5 years that have at least 60 citations each, the journal's h5-index is 60. Those 60 articles will have at least 60 citations each, some many more. The median number of citations for those 60 articles can be calculated. If the median value is 75, then the journal's h5-median is 75.
To see which articles in a publication were cited the most and who cited them, click on its h-index number to view the articles as well as the citations underlying the metrics.
You can also explore publications in research areas of your interest. To browse publications in a broad area of research, select one of the areas in the left column. For example Engineering & Computer Science Health; Medical Sciences.
To explore specific research areas, select one of the broad areas, click on the Subcategories link and then select one of the options. For example: Development Economics.
Browsing by research area is, as yet, available only for English publications.
You can search for specific publications in all languages by words in their titles. Scholar Metrics are currently based on our index as it was in July 2019
The University has developed a guide and checklist to assist with making decisions around publishing your work strategically. You may also consider publishing as Open Access to increase the reach of your research.