Finding and learning about journals and publishers: Finding Journal Facts and Stats

• Only journals listed in the Web of Knowledge database (published by Thomson Reuters).  If your journal isn’t listed in Web of Knowledge, it won’t have an impact factor.
• Impact factors are reported in the Thomson Reuters database Journal Citation Reports.  Milne Library does not have a subscription to this database due to its high cost.
• Impact factors were originally designed to help libraries determine which publications to subscribe to.  They were not intended to be a comprehensive measure of journal quality.
• Many journals report their most recent Impact Factors on their websites.
• Milne Librarians can use our super secret librarian ninja skills to find additional impact factors for you (e.g. by calling on library colleagues or visiting subscribing libraries), just ask us.

• Acceptance rates for journals in some fields can be found in an online guide called Cabell’s Directories of Publishing Opportunities.  The directories are no longer available in print, and due to their high cost, Milne Library does not have access to the electronic directory.
• Many editors will happily provide acceptance rates when emailed directly.
• Milne Librarians can help you find this information (e.g. by calling on library colleagues, visiting subscribing libraries, or emailing journal editors), just ask us.

Hundreds of metrics exist to rank, compare and classify journals, articles and authors.  While some are of interest only to bibliometricians, others are used to evaluate everything from the lifetime contributions of authors to the impact of a paper published last month.

Some of the more common metrics include:

• H-index (authors)
• Eigenfactor (journals)
• Altmetrics (social media impact of articles)
• Article level metrics (tracking views and citations to individual articles)