UPDATE (5/20/26 @ 7:30am AZ time):
The GCU Library's updated version of LopeCat, the library’s online catalog, is live! For more details on what has changed, visit the What's New Guide .
Publishing Resources: Using Journal Impact Factors
Evaluating Journals with Cabells
- Cabells Journalytics Academic & Predatory Reports This link opens in a new windowThe Cabells Journalytics database assists researchers with locating publications that may be a good fit for manuscript publication by providing information on over 11,000 journals that includes contact information, manuscript and submission guidelines, and citation-backed metrics. The Predatory Reports database is the only searchable database of deceptive and fraudulent journals and includes comprehensive reports detailing violations of over 13,000 journals that fail basic quality criteria.
Using Cabells Predatory Reports
- To browse the list of predatory journals, click the button for Predatory in the featured section.
- Search for a journal by title in the search box at the top.
- Predatory journals are ones that do not adhere to good publishing standards.
- Reconsider articles published in predatory journals.
- Click on the article's title to read the violations.
Evaluating Journals with Journal Citation Reports
- Journal Citation Reports This link opens in a new windowJournal Citation Reports (JCR) is the recognized authority for evaluating journals. JCR provides a systematic and objective means to critically evaluate leading journals using citation statistics. Use this tool to determine the impact factor of a journal, the rank of a journal within a field of study, and to sort data by defined fields including total cites, impact factor, cited half-life, number of journals in a subject category, or number of articles in a category. This resource also helps identify journals in which to publish, check the status of journals you have published in, and find current readings in a field. Includes over 21,000 indexed journals in more than 254 research categories in 114 countries/regions.
The Journal Impact Factor identifies the frequency with which an average article from a journal is cited in a particular year. You can use this number to evaluate or compare a journal’s relative importance to others in the same field or see how frequently articles are cited to determine which journals may be better for your collection.
Example 2017 Impact Factor Calculation:
Impact Factor Numerator - Cites to recent items:
The numerator looks at citations in a particular JCR year to a journal's previous two years of content. For example, the 2017 Journal Impact Factor for a journal would take into account 2017 items that cited that journal's 2015 or 2016 content. The numerator includes citations to anything published by the journal in that 2015-2016 timeframe.
Impact Factor Denominator - Number of recent items:
The denominator takes into account the number of citable items published in the journal in 2015 and 2016. Citable items include articles and reviews. Document types that aren't typically cited, e.g. letters or editorial materials, are not included in the Impact Factor denominator.
Ranking Journals by Impact Factor
Ranking journals in a category by Journal Impact Factor can help you easily identify highly-cited journals in your field. Here are the steps for creating a journal ranking in JCR:
- Click on Browse by Categories.
- Click on Select Categories on the left hand filter panel. Next, click the checkbox next to your chosen category. Finally, click Submit at the bottom of that column to search.*
- Click on Journals By Rank to see the list of journals in that category ranked by impact factor.
*JIF is designed to compare journals that belong to the same category, so applying this filter ensures that you are doing a fair journal comparison. Citation patterns and norms will differ by field, which means that the range of JIF scores will also vary by field. This indicator must be put into context in order to be meaningful.
- JCR Primer
A primer on the JCR and Journal Impact Factor.
Evaluating Journals with Essential Science Indicators
- Essential Science Indicators This link opens in a new windowEssential Science Indicators (ESI) is an analytical tool that helps you identify top-performing research in Web of Science Core Collection. ESI surveys more than 12,000 journals from around the world to rank authors, institutions, countries, and journals in 22 broad fields based on publication and citation performance. Data covers a rolling 10-year period and includes bimonthly updates to rankings and citation counts.
- Essential Science Indicators - Quick Reference Guide
A quick guide to help you get started using Essential Science Indicators.
Other Journal Evaluation Sites
- Eigenfactor This link opens in a new windowThe Eigenfactor® score of a journal is an estimate of the percentage of time that library users spend with that journal. The Eigenfactor algorithm corresponds to a simple model of research in which readers follow chains of citations as they move from journal to journal.
- SCImago Journal & Country Rank This link opens in a new windowThe SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains. This platform takes its name from the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator, developed by SCImago from the widely known algorithm Google PageRank™. This indicator shows the visibility of the journals contained in the Scopus® database from 1996.
