280

RESOURCE REVIEW
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.646

Journal Citation Reports. Clarivate age article in a journal has been years was cited. The denominator
Analytics, 1500 Spring Garden cited in a particular year. The high- is the number of total possible cita-
Philadelphia, PA 19130; er a journal’s impact factor, the ble items published in that journal
https://clarivate.com/contact- more frequently articles in that (note: JCR does not include items
us/sales-enquiries/; pricing varies journal are cited. In this way, an like letters and other editorial
according to institution, contact for impact factor can give an approxi- items).
a quote. mate indication of how prestigious
Here is an example of a ficti-
or influential a journal is in its field.
tious journal: The Example Journal.
A journal’s impact factor is not a
For the year 2017, Clarivate scans
direct link to factors such as quality
through a set of journals covered
of peer review or quality of the
by JCR (11,500 titles as of Novem-
content of a journals’ articles.
INTRODUCTION ber 2018). It counts the number of
Impact factors for journals are times that articles published in
The need to evaluate and compare sourced from several indexes in the 2017 made reference to works pub-
medical journals has become an Web of Science Core Collection lished in The Example Journal in
ongoing struggle. Researchers and published by Clarivate Analytics, 2015 and 2016. If this number is
librarians have several citation and such as the Science Citation Index 200, that is the numerator. Then it
journal metric options that can help and the Social Sciences Citation counts the total number of articles
make assessments at the journal, Index. As of November 2018, JCR published by The Example Journal in
article, and author level. has aggregated data from over 2015 and 2016. If this is 45, that is
While the over-reliance on any 11,500 titles and over 230 disci- the denominator. Divide the 2
journal-level metric has its short- plines. numbers to calculate the impact
comings, the impact factor, also factor.
To be covered in Web of Sci-
known as journal impact factor, ence and, therefore, have a chance
remains one of the most widely # of references in 2017 to articles pub-
to be given an impact factor, jour- lished in 2015 and 2016 in The Example
used indicators of journal quality. nals undergo a selection process Journal
Eugene Garfield first thought of the and maintenance review. More in- # of articles published in 2015 and 2016
idea in 1955, but it would be dec- formation about this process can be in The Example Journal
ades later when the Journal Citation found on the JCR website [2]. Cla-
Report was first utilized in the 1970s rivate Analytics is not a publisher The 2017 impact factor (IF) for
[1]. The Journal Citation Report is of journals, which affords the re- The Example Journal is 4.444. Librar-
one of the only sources of citation source a sense of objectivity. This ians and researchers are often
data on journals covering the areas sense of objectivity is perhaps more asked what this number means. Is
of science and medicine, technolo- difficult to maintain for creators of this a high impact factor? What is a
gy, and social sciences. metrics who are publishers of jour- good impact factor?
This resource review provides nals.
One important thing to keep in
a general overview of the content Essentially, a journal’s impact mind is the high variation in aver-
and features of Clarivate Analytics’ factor is derived by calculating the age impact factors across different
Journal Citation Reports (JCR). It average number of times that arti- subject areas. Practically speaking,
explains impact factors and journal cles in a journal are referenced by it is rarely useful to compare jour-
rankings, and how they are calcu- other journals within a future peri- nals from different subject areas.
lated and can be utilized. od of time. Calculating the JCR im- Hence, JCR classifies journals into a
pact factor uses a ratio where the number of subject categories. For
CONTENT numerator is the number of times instance, the #1 ranked journal in
An impact factor is a measure of an article that was published in a the category of “Immunology” is
the frequency with which the aver- specific journal in the previous two Nature Reviews Immunology, with a

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 Review 281

DOI: dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.646

2017 impact factor of 41.982. The references. For instance, JAMA is fuller picture of a journal, article, or
top ranked journal in “Economics” included in JCR, and so all the author’s influence.
is the Quarterly Journal of Economics references of its appropriate articles
• The immediacy index
with a 2017 impact factor of 7.863. are tracked. If a journal cites a
measures how frequently the
This should not be taken to mean JAMA article but that journal is not
average article from a journal is
that Nature Reviews Immunology is a indexed, then that citation does not
cited within the same year as
higher quality journal than the count toward JAMA’s impact factor
its publication. This number
Quarterly Journal of Economics. Cer- or any other indicators.
could be useful for evaluating
tain disciplines lend themselves to
Because it takes at least three journals that publish cutting-
having articles cited at higher lev-
years before an impact factor can edge research.
els than others. They are both
be calculated, there is a tendency to • The eigenfactor score is based
ranked #1 in their respective cate-
favor older and larger journals. on the number of times that ar-
gories, and this should be the key
Such journals typically have more ticles from the journal that
takeaway.
citations as they naturally have a were published in the past five
Each journal in JCR is assigned larger body of previously pub- years have been cited in the
to at least one subject category. In lished articles that are available to JCR year, but it also considers
some cases, a journal may be as- be cited. which journals have contribut-
signed to more than one subject ed these citations so that highly
Another problem is that self-
category; therefore, when compar- cited journals will influence the
citations (citations a publication
ing journals across related catego- network more than lesser cited
makes to other articles published in
ries, it is possible to see the same journals. References from one
the same journal) can bolster a
journal title in different categories. article in a journal to another
journal’s impact factor [3]. JCR
In Figure 1, Nature Reviews Drug article from the same journal
does have a way to address this,
Discovery is listed in two categories: are removed so that eigenfactor
which is discussed in the “Major
“Biotechnology & Applied Micro- scores are not influenced by
Features” section below.
biology” and “Pharmacology & journal self-citation.
Pharmacy.” Likewise, since review articles • The journal impact factor
typically include so many more without self-cites also ad-
LIMITATIONS references, journals that heavily dresses the criticism that im-
publish review articles can influ- pact factors can be easily
It is important to keep in mind the ence an impact factor as well. influenced by self-citations. It is
shortcomings and issues calculated exactly the same as
surrounding the impact factor. the journal impact factor, but
MAJOR FEATURES
Coverage for tracking citations is with one important exception:
entirely subject to those indexes While impact factors make up the any citations to a publication
that Clarivate Analytics has backbone of JCR, there are several that come from the publication
included. If a journal is not indexed other metrics, indicators, and fea- itself (i.e., self-citations) are ex-
in Web of Science, it will not be tures provided throughout the re- cluded from the numerator of
included in the scan for its source that can aid in providing a the calculation.

Figure 1 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) information for Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

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282 Review

DOI: dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.646

• The 5-year journal impact fac- mine a journal’s influence in its Anyone interested in tracking
tor is the average number of relative field. There are many times bibliometric citation patterns and
times that articles from the when individuals or institutions trends will find the JCR infor-
journal that were published in will want to know a precise impact mation as well as their visualiza-
the past five years have been factor. Having access to the source tion charts and graphs very
cited in a given JCR year. This means not having to rely on a pub- helpful.
helps show the long-term cita- lisher’s website for current and ac-
tion trend for a journal. curate data. ACCESSIBILITY AND USABILITY
• The h-index is usually used as
Knowing how best to use im- Access depends on having a license
a measure of scientific produc-
pact factors and journal rankings to the JCR resource. JCR lives on
tivity and the scientific impact
means acknowledging the limita- the Clarivate platform, allowing
of an individual scientist, but it
tions of solely relying on them to thorough integration with other
can also be used to rank jour-
judge a journal’s scholarly worth. Clarivate resources such as Web of
nals.
That said, impact factors and the Science and InCites; however, a
Other features include being journal’s ranking in its JCR catego- subscription to one of these re-
able to compare journals by trends ry could be useful as part of a sources is necessary.
and quartiles. There are a number package including information
of visualization charts and graphs such as databases where the jour- Searching and navigating JCR
that assist in seeing the relationship nal is indexed. Those working in can be frustrating. It offers only
between citing and cited journals, collection development and acqui- basic title search functionality. A
which helps to trace a journal’s im- sitions would find JCR helpful user has to input the title according
pact over time. Data from charts when making purchasing deci- to how Clarivate indexes that title
and graphs can be exported to sions. for it to show up. The auto-fill is
portable document format (PDF), very sensitive and can miss a title,
This reviewer has pulled lists if care is not taken in typing out the
comma-separated value (CSV), and
from the category rankings to give journal title. Going from category
Excel (XLS) formats.
authors other journals to consider data to journal rankings is clunky
for publishing. There is even an and nonintuitive. The hyperlink of
AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE option to filter to open access jour- the total number of journals must
nals, which is sometimes an au- be used to get to the Journals By
JCR is a resource meant for re-
thor’s goal (Figure 2). Users can Rank.
searchers, librarians, clinicians, in-
export their lists and include rank-
stitutions, publishers, authors, and
ing, impact factor, and other indi-
readers of medical, science, and
cators.
social science literature to deter-

Figure 2 JCR list of journals in pharmacology and pharmacy

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 Review 283

DOI: dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.646

BRIEF COMPARISON TO OTHER makes citation analyses based only

SIMILAR PRODUCTS on those journals that are indexed REFERENCES
There are several other journal in Scopus. Likewise, JCR has a limi- 1. Garfield E. The history and meaning of
metrics and ranking systems avail- tation of only being able to track the journal impact factor. JAMA. 2006
citations of journals that are in- Jan 4;295(1):90–3.
able. Perhaps the biggest competi-
tor is SCImago journal rank dexed in Web of Science. The dif- 2. Testa J. Journal selection process
indicator. It measures the scientific ference is that Elsevier, the large [Internet]. Clarivate Analytics; 28 Jun
2018 [cited 24 Nov 2018].
influence of scholarly journals publishing group, owns Scopus
<https://clarivate.com/essays/journal
based on both the number of cita- and could, therefore, potentially -selection-process>.
tions received by a journal, very inflate the importance of its own
3. The impact factor game: it is time to
similar to how impact factor is col- journals. find a better way to assess the scientific
lected (except they go back three literature. PLoS Med. 2006
Jun;3(6):e291.
years instead of two), and the im- CONCLUSION
portance or prestige of the journals 4. Scimago Journal & County Rank.
Purchasing JCR should be based on About us [Internet]. Scimago Lab [cited
where such citations come from [4].
an institution’s research and pub- 4 Dec 2018].
The SCImago Journal & Coun- lishing needs. JCR provides power- <https://www.scimagojr.com/aboutu
s.php>.
try Rank is a publicly available por- ful and comprehensive bibliometric
tal, meaning there is no fee to metrics from an objective source. Anna Krampl, MSLS,
access their information, which is a While it has its limitations and [email protected], Library Assistant
huge advantage over JCR. A limita- newer metrics continually become Professor, Head of Public Services, and
tion for this indicator is that it available, JCR continues to be used Library Liaison to Surgery, Obstetrics and
globally. Gynecology, and Psychiatry, Skelton
Medical Library, Mercer University School
of Medicine, Macon, GA

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ISSN 1558-9439 (Online)

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