News release

From the University Library

22 June 2009

2008 Journal Citation Reports now available

Data from the 2008 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is now available, via the Web of Knowledge gateway.

"Journal Citation Reports® offers a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world's leading journals, with quantifiable, statistical information based on citation data. By compiling articles' cited references, JCR helps to measure research influence and impact at the journal and category levels, and shows the relationship between citing and cited journals." - JCR website

By analysing citations in articles indexed in the Web of Science databases, the Journal Citation Reports can calculate a journal's Impact Factor (IF), which enables the relative importance of journals in any given field to be calculated (most usefully in fields related to engineering, mathematics and the physical, health and life sciences).

New functionality in JCR Web:

Five-Year Impact Factor – Gives a broader range of citation activity for a more informative snapshot over time. For journals in subjects where citation activity continues to rise through several years, this allows more of their total citation activity to be included in a critical performance metric.

Eigenfactor™ Metrics, comprised of the Eigenfactor™ Score and Article Influence™ Score, are designed to reflect the prestige and citation influence of journals by considering scholarly literature as a network of journal-to-journal relationships.

Graphic Displays of Impact Factor “Box Plots” – A graphic interpretation of how a journal ranks in different categories.

Rank-in-Category Tables for Journals Covering Multiple Disciplines – Allows a journal to be seen in the context of multiple categories at a glance rather than only a single one.

Journal “Self Citations” – An analysis of journal self citations and their contribution to the Journal Impact Factor calculation.

(From the JCR website)