How to Use Journal Metrics to Improve Your Journal

Journal Impact Factor

Developed by Web of Science/Clarivate, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) assesses how frequently an article in a journal has been cited each year.

New JIFs are released every year and calculated by the number of times articles published in the previous two years have been cited.

Journals can be indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCIE), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), the Emerging Sourcing Citation Index, or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Journals within the SCIE, SSCI and AHCI are assigned a rank within their assigned subject categories.

5-year Journal Impact Factor

The 5-year Journal Impact Factor is calculated the same as IF but uses citation data from articles published over the last 5 years, giving a much broader view. 5-year Journal Impact Factors are released every year.

CiteScore

A journal’s CiteScore is based on the number of citations a piece of published content receives over a three-year period.

Although the calculation is similar to the JIF, there are differences between the two.

• CiteScore uses a three-year window whereas Impact Factor use a two-year window
• CiteScore uses all citable document types and not just research articles. This includes conference papers, editorials, and reviews.
• CiteScore uses Scopus data rather than Web of Science data.

Journal Citation Indicator (JCI)

The Journal Citation Indicator is a metric that has been designed to complement the JIF by taking variables such as subject area, document type, and year of publication into account.

The JCI uses the Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) tool which calculates the figure by dividing the actual count of citable items by the expected citation rate for documents with the same document type, year of publication, and subject area.

SCImago Journal Rank

The SJR is calculated by taking the weighted number of citations of citable documents published in a three-year period, divided by the total number of citable documents within that time frame.

The SCImago ranking system is based on the reputation and influence of a journal and was inspired by Google's PageRank algorithm.

Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)

The Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) is a citation-based metric that uses weighting based on the total number of citations within a subject area, making it easier to make comparisons in a particular field.

SNIP is calculated by taking the weighted number of citations received in the current year and dividing them by the total number of publications in the past three years.

Ensuring the research that your journal publishes reaches as wide an audience as possible should be an integral part of your mission. Metrics like citations and readership size are starting points for measuring the impact that your journal is having. Here are some tips to increase both:

1. Publishing Special Issues

Data sourced from Scopus and ScienceDirect suggests that articles published in special issues can attract 10% more citations than articles published in a regular issue. This could be because special issues are often published in new and emerging areas and attract more attention from the journal's readership.

2. Including Thought Leaders

Inviting and publishing articles from leading, highly cited authors can be a great way to increase the visibility of your journal as well as encourage other high-profile authors to publish among their peers.

3. Promoting Your Journal

Once a piece of research has been published it doesn’t mean that the journey ends there. Promoting an article so that it reaches a wide readership is in the best interest not just for the author, but also for you as an editor. Increasing your readership can lead to better quality contributions, which in turn can improve your citations and other journal metrics.