Journal Impact Factors
What is an impact factor?
Impact factor is a measure of the frequency that the average article in a journal is cited in a certain year. You can find the impact factors of journals in the Journal Citation Reports database. An example of an impact factor is below:
For more detailed instructions and information on impact factors, please view this page: https://libguides.usc.edu/socialwork/impact
Also check out Evaluating Information Sources, for more information about impact metrics and citation counts.
How do you find a journal impact factor?
The impact factor of a particular journal can be found in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database. Not every journal in the world is tracked by this source, so some journals do not have impact factors at all. Watch the videos below to learn how to find Impact Factor or verify that there is no Impact Factor for a specific journal in a specific year. Follow the instructions below to find the Journal Citation Reports database.
- Go to the USC Libraries website: https://libraries.usc.edu/
- Under FIND, select Databases
- Search for the database Journal Citation Reports
- Select Journal Citation Reports (Web of Science) from the results