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Evaluating Journals: Impact & More

Evaluating impact

In academia, scholarship impact is often measured by citation counts and journal rankings. However, there are a variety of ways of thinking about the impact of research and scholarship.

Keep in mind:

Many journals with strong reputations within a specialized field may not have an impact factor. This is especially true with journals outside of the STEM fields.

When looking for journal rankings from a specific subject category, consider other related categories, including broader categories. For example, if you are looking for highly ranked zoology journals, Nature is one of the most high impact science journals and may contain articles related to zoology. However, Nature may be listed under a more general science category.

You'll want to make other considerations beyond impact factor when determining where to publish your work. For example, you should consider:

Tools for Evaluating Journal Impact

Brandeis does not presently subscribe to Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters. The tools listed above are alternatives resources for evaluating journal impact.

Finding the impact factor for a specific journal of interest

You may be able to find information about impact factor and journal ranking on the publisher's or database's page about at the journal. Some screenshots are included below, showing examples of journal pages providing this information:

Example of journal page with impact factor other journal metrics

Example of journal providing impact factor

Example of a journal page providing impact factor

Image showing a journal page with Impact factor

If the journal webpage doesn’t include this information, try using the tools for evaluating journal impact listed above.