Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is a unique database that is used to determine the relative importance of journals within their subject categories.  JCR covers over 7000 journal titles from over 3000 publishers worldwide. It contains 2 databases – JCR Science Edition and JCR Social Sciences Edition.  Each database covers the most recent year of data available for impact factors (e.g. 2010).   JCR lists journal titles and assigns an impact factor to each title. JCR is only updated once each year in June/July.

• Science Edition - 7,300+ journals
• Social Sciences Edition -  2,200+ journals

Note: You cannot search both editions at the same time.  The default is Science Edition and the latest available year.

Comparisons between journals must be for journals in the same field as disciplines vary considerably in their citation methods

JCR is available from the Library’s Databases page.

You can search in two ways:

• journal title
• subject category

Searching for a known journal title

• select Search for a specific journal and select Submit
• type in the journal name or check the Source List, and select Search
• note the information about the journal title:
  • total no. of cites in 2010 and the impact factor
• select the Journal title link
  • journals may be assigned more than one subject category. Use the Scope note to check what is included in a particular subject category
  • select Impact Factor Trend. View the impact factor graph for the last 5 years – check the impact factor pattern for this journal title.  This is a comparison of each year for the journal title but not a comparison of this title with others in the field

To compare this title with other titles in the field:

• select Return to Journal
• select View journal summary list (this is a list of all titles in this area) – note that you could also do this with a General search
  • change Sorted by option to Impact factor then select Sort again
  • note where your journal title is ranked – you may have made a good choice or you may want to revise your choice

Another method to do this is to:

• select Return to Journal
• Under Journal Information, look for Journal Rank in Categories
• click on the Journal ranking button.
• A table displays with: Category Name; Total Journals in Category; Journal Rank in Category; Quartile in Category.

Searching within a subject category

• select View a group of journals by and then select Subject Category
• select Submit
• scroll down the list of categories to find and select the category you are interested in, e.g.: "Education & Educational Research"
• Submit your request
• change Sorted by option to Impact factor then select Sort again. This will produce a list of titles beginning with the title with the highest impact factor for that category.

 Eigenfactor metrics

The Eigenfactor score measures the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year.