Evaluation based on scientific publishing: Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports

Thomson Reuters  releases journal Impact Factors (IF) in JCR yearly. Only journals indexed by Web of Science -database can get Impact Factors.  Additionally JCR contains also other indicators based on citations. JCR shows the most frequently cited journals in a field, the highest impact journals in a field, and the largest journals in a field.

JCR aims to cover the core of the world's most important peer-reviewed journals. The core of journals is not static, but changes constantly reflecting the evolution of scholarly topics. Read more about the Thomson Reuters journal selection process.

Each journal in JCR is assigned to at least one subject category, indicating a general area of science or the social sciences. Journals may be included in more than one subject category; therefore, when comparing journals across related categories, it is possible to see the same journal title in different categories. Some of the journals listed in JCR are not citing journals, but are cited-only journals. This means that the references in these journals are not included in the database. This is significant when comparing journals because self-citations from cited-only journals are not included in JCR data. Self-citations often represent a significant percentage of the citations that a journal receives. Cited-only journals may be ceased journals, suspended journals, or superseded titles. Any journal that appears elsewhere in JCR, but not in the Citing Journal Listing, is a cited-only journal.

JCR is published in two editions in early summer:

 Journals can be sorted according to:

  • Impact Factor
  • Immediacy index
  • Cited half life
  • Eigenfactor
  • Article Influence

JCR Fact Sheet
Journals in the 2014 release of JCR
JCR tutorial  video  (5,47 min)

Evaluating a journal in JCR

Journals can be evaluated at the journal level, journal category level, and at all journals level.

On the wellcome-page, select the JCR edition you wish to search and the year. Select which type of search you want to run: view a group of journals, search for a specific journal or view all journals in the JCR edition and year selected.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

Searching for a specific journal is possible by full journal title, journal abbreviation, title word, or ISSN-number.

Information on  Genome Research, year 2013. Note the button for  IF-trend. It is useful to study also subject category data.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters),  7.8.2014

IF-trend of Genome Research between years 2006-2010.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

 


Related Journals have cited and citing relationships with the source journal. Two values are given in the relatedness column: citations from source journal to related journal, and citations from related journal to source journal. The higher of these two values appears in the Rmax column. Journals in the table are ranked according to the Rmax value. The table gives related journals for Genome Research. Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 7.8.2014.

 

The Cited Journal Graph shows the distribution by cited year of citations to articles published in a journal. The white/grey division indicates the approximate position of the cited half-life. The top (gold or yellow) portion of each column indicates journal self-citations. The bottom (dark blue) portion of each column indicates non-self citations. The two light blue columns indicate citations used to calculate the Impact Factor. Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

The Citing Journal Graph shows the distribution by cited year of citations from articles in the selected journal. All of the citing articles were published in the JCR edition year. The white/grey division indicates the approximate position of the cited half-life. The top (gold or yellow) portion of each column indicates. Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

Journal Self Cites link gives the self-citation rates of a journal, and also Impact Factor calculated without self-citations.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters),  29.6.2011.

The Journal Ranking table shows the ranking of the current journal in its subject categories based on the journal Impact Factor. The table gives rank in category data for Genome Research in three subject categories.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

The category box plot is the Impact Factor box plot for the subject category to which the journal belongs. The horizontal line that forms the top of the box is the 75th percentile. The horizontal line that forms the bottom is the 25th percentile. The horizontal line that intersects the box is the median Impact Factor for the category. The cross represents the mean value. Horizontal lines above and below the box represent maximum and minimum values that are no more than 1.5 times the span of the interquartile range, which is the range of values between the 25th and the 75th percentiles. These lines are commonly referred to as "whiskers." An open circle represents an outlier, which is a single value greater or less than the extremes indicated by the whiskers. The example shows category box plots for Genome Research. The subject categories are: A: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, B: Biotechnology & applied microbiology, and C: Genetics & Heredity.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

Evaluating a subject category in JCR

The group of journals can be selected by subject category, publisher, or country or territory. If more than one subject category group is selected, the results can be sorted by Category Title, Total Cites, Median Impact Factor, Aggregate Impact Factor, Aggregate Immediacy Index, Aggregate Cited Half-Life, Number of Journals, and Total Number of Articles.

Subject Category Summary list for categories Biochemistry & Molecular biology and Biotechnology & Applied microbiology sorted by Median Impact Factor. View Journal Summary List -button gives journal information for journals belonging to the categories selected.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

Category information for subject category Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011

Journal Summary List for subject categories Biochemistry & molecular biology and Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology sorted by Impact Factor. Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters),  29.6.2011.

The Aggregate Cited Category Graph shows the distribution by cited year of citations to articles published in journals in the category in the JCR edition year. The white/grey division indicates the cited half-life.The light-blue columns indicate citations used to calculate the Impact Factor. The example shows the Aggregate Cited Category Graph for subject category Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011

The Citing Category Graph shows the distribution by cited year of citations from journals in the category made in the JCR edition year. The white/grey division indicates the citing half-life. The example shows the Aggregate Citing Category Graph for subject category Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.

 

Frequency of publication data categorize the journals in the subject category according to their publication schedule. The example shows publication frequency data for subject category Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 9.6.2011.
 

The category box plot shows the distribution of Impact Factors for the subject category. The horizontal line that forms the top of the box is the 75th percentile. The horizontal line that forms the bottom is the 25th percentile. The horizontal line that intersects the box is the median Impact Factor for the category. The cross represents the mean value. Horizontal lines above and below the box represent maximum and minimum values that are no more than 1.5 times the span of the interquartile range, which is the range of values between the 25th and the 75th percentiles. These lines are commonly referred to as "whiskers." An open circle represents an outlier, which is a single value greater or less than the extremes indicated by the whiskers. The example shows the category box plot for subject category Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
Source: Journal Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters), 29.6.2011.