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Research Impact Metrics

Provides an overview of Research Impact Metrics

CiteScore, SJR and SNIP

Sample Statement:

"All of my publications are in high quality journals: 35% of my publications are in the top 10% Journals (by SJR), with the remainder in the Q1 Journal Quartile (top 25%)."

SJR, SNIP and CiteScore are the journal level metrics used by Scopus.  

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)
  1. Citation Quality: SJR accounts for the prestige of the citing journals, giving more weight to citations from high-impact journals.
  2. Field Normalization: It adjusts for differences in citation practices across disciplines, making it useful for cross-disciplinary comparisons.
  3. Prestige Indicator: SJR is often seen as a measure of a journal’s overall prestige and influence within its field.
Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)
  1. Field-Specific: SNIP normalizes citation impact by considering the citation potential in a journal’s subject field, making it particularly useful for comparing journals in different fields.
  2. Contextual Impact: It measures the contextual citation impact, accounting for the fact that some fields have higher citation rates than others.
  3. Balanced Metric: SNIP provides a balanced view of a journal’s impact, considering both the number of citations and the field’s citation behavior.
CiteScore
  1. Broader Coverage: CiteScore includes a wider range of document types (e.g., articles, reviews, conference papers) compared to other metrics.
  2. Four-Year Window: It uses a four-year citation window, which can provide a more stable and comprehensive measure of a journal’s impact.
  3. Transparency: CiteScore is transparent about its calculation and the data sources used, making it easier to understand and verify.

To find the SJR, SNIP and CiteScore for a journal:

  1. carry out a Documents search or Authors search in Scopus

  2. 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

  3. click the journal title on the top of the page

  4. this will take you to the journal metrics including Citescore/ SJR/ SNIP, quartiles and ranks in subject categories.

When using metrics like CiteScore, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) to demonstrate research impact, consider the following:

  1. Field-Specific Differences: These metrics can vary significantly across different fields. It’s important to compare journals within the same discipline to get a fair assessment.

  2. Citation Practices: Different fields have different citation practices. SNIP accounts for these variations by normalizing citation impact, making it useful for comparing journals across disciplines.

  3. Metric Limitations: Each metric has its own limitations. For example, CiteScore covers a four-year period, while SJR and SNIP consider different aspects of citation impact.  Using multiple metrics can provide a more comprehensive view.