As ever, when it comes to numbers, I am flummoxed. I remember taking a course that discussed journal impact factor numbers, but I do not remember if its better to have a small number or a big number. I have tried to look this up, and all I have found are articles that describe the formulas by which these numbers are calculated, but nothing that seems to interpret the number itself...silly question, but if anyone has an answer, it would be most appreciated.

Tis the number of times you have to bang your head against your desk before understanding what the paper is all about. The better the paper, the more you have t bang your head to make sense of it - simple

ahhh, I get it. So the higher the number, the greater the impact, the better...though bad on your head, and perhaps the desk!!! That will be an easy way to remember that a high number is GOOD, lots of impact...ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is it Friday yet?

one thing - IFs are done across all journals so take into consideration your discipline. in some it goes up into the 50s but in mine, anything above a 1 is good!!!!

A

So, I searched amongst the journals in my field, and the highest rating seems to be 0.7!!! Does this seem possible?! So if I am looking at a journal with 0.5--that is actually perhaps a relatively high impact journal?! given the field??? This means what, no one reads or cites the journals in this field? its a tiny field? its scholarship is crap?

olivia, don't panic!!! it doesn't meant your field is tiny, just others are bigger. if you think about things like drug development where there is lots of cash to be made of course there's going to be more interest generally in those areas (because of the money to be made) and therefore those journals are going to have higher impact factor. 0.5 in a field where 0.7 sounds just fine.

A

olivia - thanks for posting this as am in a similar quandry. Supervisor is adamant that I get a paper done on my field research and has left me to decide the journal and to be honest I was like a rabbit in the headlights when he started going on about "impact factor". As well as having the sheer dread of writing this paper (have written before but not for journals), is there any tips on a. How to find specific journals and b. How to find their rating.
Sorry for the plain naivity (sic) but need any advice.

Some journals list their impact factors ( as well as information for prospective contributors) on their website. I also googled something on impact factors and journal ratings and found a site that let you check journals within various fields, and countries...I don't remember it offhand, but perhaps you could try googling and see what you come up with? I will see if I can find the site again and if so will post a link. Good luck!

You can look up the Journal Citation Reports through your Uni library (use ISI). It has the latest impact factors and you are not dependent on some from 2005 or so. Here's a link but you need access:

http://scientific.thomson.com/products/jcr/

Here's a little bit more on the Thomson Scientific Impact Factors:

http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/free/essays/journalcitationreports/impactfactor/

olivia - Hope the paper writing is going well. Will be working on this later in the week so of course anything I find I will post on the forum. I gave a very quick look at Danzig's post as have to be elsewhere soon and it seems to be on the ball (much appreciato). Now all I need to do is get rid of this latest bout of insomnia :P

Web of Knowledge do a similar service ... don't know if ye'll be able to access this link
http://admin-apps.isiknowledge.com/JCR/JCR?SID=Q2FL7E5OBn81KOnmM49

But if you can't access the above link, your library website should have a link to the Web of Knowledge. Once there click on "Additional Resources" and this will then take you to the "Journal Citation Report". It doesn't support all journals but better than nothing. If I see anything later in the week, I will put it on the forum.

One obvious other way for finding journal popularity would be to check your own EndNote records (if using it). Put Journal/Secondary title as one of the headings and sort the records by that - at least then you will be able to see where the majority of stuff that you yourself are reading.

Thank God for the motivational choons of Megadeth at the end of yet another promising but ultimately undelivering Monday - "Sweating Bullets" is deffo a theme tune for anyone stuck in the middle of a PhD

Does the location of the journal seem to make a difference. i.e. what country it is in? For instance the American law journals seem to have much larger impact factors than their UK counterparts, and given the difference in size between the US and the UK, this seems like a bit of a chimera in determining the journal impact. Of course Americans are going to read American law, there are more Americans doing scholarly work overall in the field, etc. Do impact factors within the UK matter more than worldwide impact factors, when trying to judge the relative weighting of a journal.