The impact factor (IF) of a journal is a measure of the frequency with which the average article published in the journal has been referenced in a given year. Calculating the number of times an article from a journal is mentioned is used to determine the importance or rank of a publication. Using data from a two-year period, the computation is made by multiplying by the number of times articles have been cited by the number of articles that are citable in that period. It is given in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) CiteScore, which is comparable to the Impact Factor but is calculated over a four-year period rather than a single year.
A Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 4 is excellent in many circumstances, and some journal editors strive for it. However, a JIF of 4 is only acceptable or typical for specific journals, and for others, it is remarkable. Even in the sciences, where citations are more rapid and frequent than in the humanities, a journal with a JIF approaching 250 obtains many sources and claims an exceptionally high JIF. When the top sciencejournal received that score, the next on the list had a considerably lower but still excellent JIF of nearly 80, while the journals below were in the 50s. In some domains, a JIF of 50 has never been attained and is unlikely to be obtained in the future due to citation methods and patterns. A JIF of 10 or above is considered exceptional in most research fields, and anything over a JIF of 3 is deemed reasonable in many others. Still, it is essential to realise that JCR impact factors for journals vary significantly among disciplines. A journal's impact factor may be determined by comparing it to other journals in the same JCR subject area. To do so, go to the JCR website on InCites and select Browse by Category. Several journals list the JCR topic categories in each, but the order may be changed by clicking on the column headings, and specific types can be chosen from the menu to the left. Clicking on a category name in the list leads you to its profile page, and clicking on the number of journals in a category brings you to a list of all the bulletins in that category. JIF rates this journal list. Therefore determining a journal's impact factor is simple. It's also simple to compare all journals in a topic area using the JIF, and you can restrict your search by selecting specific journals from the menu on the left.
In the same way that all journals have an Impact Factor, some open access journals have one, and others do not. There are a variety of reasons why a journal could not have an Impact Factor, including:
- It might cover a subject in the Arts and Humanities that isn't covered by either the Social Sciences Citation Index or the Sciences Citation Index, for example (the databases on which Impact Factors are based).
- It is possible that the journal is in the process of applying for inclusion in these databases.
- It may have decided not to apply at all.
As a result, whether or not an open-access journal has an Impact Factor should not be regarded as a reliable measure of its quality or reputation because several factors might impact this figure. Where open access journals do have an Impact Factor, it is not always the case that they are higher or lower than those published by subscription journals on the same subject. The reason for this is that the Impact Factor is determined by several complicated factors, including the citation patterns of the topic area and the sort of papers published in the journal. For example, a highly referenced open access journalmay be expected to be highly cited since it is well-read and available to everyone worldwide. However, if the magazine has an audience of practitioners, it is possible that this will not be the case because practitioners are less likely to reference research publications.