Impact factor for a journal
Impact factor is a measurement of a journal's impact. However, it tells nothing about how much an individual article will be quoted. Even in journals with a high impact factor, a clear majority of articles receive few or no citations at all.
How is a journal’s impact factor calculated?
In this example, we have chosen the 2022 Journal Impact Factor (JIF) for the journal Lancet. The number of citations in 2022 to articles from the Lancet in 2020 and 2021 is divided by the total number of published articles during the same two years, which gives the journal's impact factor.
One of the advantages of citation analysis is using large amounts of research, thus discovering patterns and deviations over time. It is imperative to compare apples with apples, that is, within the same subject area, the same annual interval, and the same publication type. This method is best suited for large units.
What is the impact factor of my chosen journal?
In Journal Citation Reports – search for the title by entering the full name without abbreviations. Search results are presented with information about the impact factor and how often the journal is published, along with other information.
