Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is a product of Clarivate Analytics and is an authoritative resource for bibliometric and citation analysis. It provides a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world's leading scientific journals and their impact and influence in the global research community.

Overview

Journal Citation Reports provides a comprehensive overview of the world's most influential academic journals. It uses a combination of impact factor, immediacy index, and other key metrics to provide a snapshot of the influence and importance of a journal in its field. JCR is used by academic institutions, publishers, and researchers to evaluate and compare journals, and to understand their relative importance in the global research community.

History

The first edition of the Journal Citation Reports was published in 1975 by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). It was initially a part of ISI's Science Citation Index (SCI), but later became a separate product. In 2016, Clarivate Analytics acquired the product from Thomson Reuters.

Metrics

Journal Citation Reports uses several metrics to evaluate and rank journals. The most well-known of these is the Impact Factor, which measures the average number of citations received in a particular year by papers published in the journal during the two preceding years. Other metrics used by JCR include the Immediacy Index, which measures how quickly articles in a journal are cited, and the Eigenfactor Score, which considers the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year.

Criticism

Despite its widespread use, Journal Citation Reports has been criticized for its over-reliance on the Impact Factor. Critics argue that the Impact Factor can be manipulated and does not accurately reflect the quality of individual articles. In response to these criticisms, Clarivate Analytics has introduced additional metrics in JCR, such as the Eigenfactor Score and the 5-Year Impact Factor.

See also

• Impact Factor
• Eigenfactor
• H-index
• Scientometrics