ITLS Brownbag: Journal Metrics

Journal metrics measure the number of times articles from a specific journal have been cited by other articles. There are many different types of journal metrics and each organization count citations in slightly different ways.

• Impact Factor: from Journal of Citation Reports. We do not have access to this subscription service. 
• CiteScore: from Scopus who indexes a larger variety of journals than JCR.

Journal metrics are used as a means of comparison that demonstrate "impact" in the tenure or job search process. 

However, its important to note there are several other types of metrics that can also be used to demonstrate impact:

• Citations - per article, not journal
• Altmetrics - twitter mentions, "shares"
• Downloads - Digital Commons, journal specific 
• Adoption of practices at other insitutions
• Influence on policy
• Public impact

Choose the metrics that give the best context for the impact of your work.