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Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) from Thomson ISI is a comprehensive and unique resource tool that allows you to evaluate and compare journals using citation data drawn from over 7,000 scholarly and technical journals from more than 3,300 publishers in over 60 countries. It is the only source of citation data on journals, and includes virtually all specialties in the areas of science, technology, and social sciences. Journal Citation Reports can show you the:

  • Most frequently cited journals in a field
  • Highest impact journals in a field
  • Hottest journals in a field
  • Leading journals in a field
  • Most published articles in a field

Thomson, the publisher of Journal Citation Reports, provides useful information on this product.  Please see these for further guidance.

You may also want to review the "information for new users" available on the launch screen of JCR.   Note that JCR is available for social sciences and sciences, but is not produced by Thomson for arts and humanities journals.  The CSULB Library also subscribes to Web of Science from the same publisher.

The Library offers multiple access points to JCR:

  1. Via a unique link directly to JCR on the CSULB Library's database pages.
  2. When searching Web of Science and viewing a record, you will also have access to the related Journal Citation Report for that journal, should that title be included in JCR.
  3. It is also possible to access Journal Citation Reports from within the Web of Science interface.

ISI Web of Knowledge page

The JCR's use of "impact factors" has been widely discussed. You may wish to review some of the following articles as regards the use, and potential mis-use, of impact factors. Conditions which may affect journal rankings and impact factors include:

  • If a journal publishes a large number of reviews one year, there may be a temporary increase in the number of citations received.
  • Sudden changes in a journal’s size can affect the Impact Factor. For example, when an article count drops, the Impact Factor may rise temporarily.
  • In the first year after a journal title change, the new title is listed without an Impact Factor, because the article count for the two preceding years used in the Impact Factor calculations is zero.

From Thomson Scientific's web site-- 4 essays on Journal Citation Reports.

From the Journal of Cell Biology -- editorial questioning validity of impact factors Show Me the Data.

From Elsevier's web site-- article onImpact Factors: Use and Abuse.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education -- article on The Number That's Devouring Science.

Paper Presented at the Council of Scientific Editors Annual Meeting, 2000 -- The Use of JRC and JPI in Measuring Short and Long Term Journal Impact.

Article from the Journal of the American Society for Information Science -- Improving the Accuracy of Institute for Scientific Information's Journal Impact Factors.

Article from The Serials Librarian, 2004-- The Benefits and Drawbacks of Impact Factor for Journal Collection Management in Libraries(article not available at CSULB Library).

Article from BMJ, 1997 -- Why the Impact Factor of Journals Should Not be Used for Evaluating Research.

 

Content maintained by Sara Sluss