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Library Services Telephone: 434.924.7040
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Wednesday, Nov. 25, 8am,-Noon
Thursday-Sunday, Nov. 26-29, CLOSED

Introduction
The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. Web of Knowledge/Web of Science's Journal Citation Reports (JCR) lists the impact factors for journals and lists impact factors in the context of their specific field. To find a journal's impact factor, follow the steps below. Remember, if you are off-Grounds and want to obtain this information, you must be connecting through the VPN, UVaAnywhere.

Step-By-Step: locate a specific journal's impact factor

1. Go to the database, Web of Knowledge/Web of Sciences to which the library supplies access.
2. Click on the link in the bright yellow tab near the top of the page labeled, Additional Resources
3. Click on the blue link, Journal Citation Reports®
4. On the page that appears
   

   select a JCR edition (either Science or Social Science) and then select the year (the current year is 2008 you may wish to let it default to 2008)
   select, for example, the option, Search for a specific journal
   then click the button, Submit.

   
   
   
5. The Journal Search page will appear, and you can search for journals by full journal title, abbreviated journal title, title word, or ISSN. In this example, I typed in the title, Journal of School Psychology.
   
   
   
   
6. The page that appears, the "Journal Summary List" , will show the impact factor for your selected journal. For additional analysis and explanation of impact factor and other measures, click the journal's abbreviated journal title (in blue), J School Psychology.
   
   
   
   
7. The "Journal Summary List" page will show the impact factor for your selected journal. For additional analysis and explanation of impact factor and other measures, click the journal's abbreviated journal title (in blue), J School Psychology.
   
   

Step-By-Step: locate the impact factors for a group of journals by subject

1. Go to the Libary's database page, click on the blue link, Web of Knowledge/Web of Science near the top of the page in the white section.
2. Click on the link in the gold tab labeled Additional Resources
3. Click on the blue link, Journal Citation Reports®
4. On the page that appears
   

   select a JCR edition (either Science or Social Science) and year
   select an option,View a group of journals by Subject Category
   then click Submit.

5. The Subject Category Selection page will let you search by one or more subject categories. Select a subject category (example: physiology), check View Journal Data, then select sort by Impact Factor, then click Submit.
   
   
   
   
6. The journal summary list page will show the impact factor of the journals in your selected category or categories. For additional analysis and explanation of impact factor and other measures, click the journal's title.
   
   

Resources

1. Panel discussion at Columbia University about Impact Factors and What Matters
2. Journal Citation Report documentation from ISI (PDF Document) a vendor's free training aid

Help
For additional information about the Journal Citation Reports, contact a Reference Librarian: 434.924.7040 or education_library@virginia.edu.

Related Topics

1. See the following webpage to determine who is citing an author's works and how often the works are being cited?
2. Promotion and Tenure Resources