Journal metrics represent the importance of a journal in a discipline based on citations to the journal as a whole over a period of time. The use of journal metrics to evaluate faculty performance has pros and cons, especially depending on your discipline. Note the Subject Coverage in the boxes below.

Major journal metrics currently available, along with their definitions, are:

• Journal Impact Factor (JIF) from Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
• Journal Quartiles and JIF Percentiles from JCR  
• SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) from the SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SCImago)
• Journal h-index from SCImago
• Journal h-indices from Google Scholar
• CiteScore metrics and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), free metrics from Scopus

Remember that journal metrics are based on differing citation counts and may be calculated differently from one resource to the next. This means, for example, that the journal h-indices from Google Scholar and SCImago are not interchangeable or comparable. See the rest of this page for details on how to find the various journal metrics.

Enter the library's subscription to Journal Citation Reports (JCR) here or through the Databases search tab on the library homepage. The video below demonstrates how to locate: 

• a journal's entire profile, including JIF Quartiles and JIF Percentiles (4:12 minute video)

JCR is based on the same journal list as Web of Science, which is considered the "gold standard" in databases. JCR tracks citations to more than 12,800 titles, the majority of which are in the science disciplines. 

• Subject coverage. 65% Sciences, 23% Social Sciences, and 13% Arts and Humanities.
• Publication types. Peer-reviewed journal articles and some technical/trade journals.
• Limitations. 1) Weak coverage of humanities and social sciences; and 2) trade and practitioner journals are generally not included.

Enter the freely available Journal Metrics module in Scopus. The short resources below demonstrates how to locate CiteScore metrics and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP):

• "Introducing CiteScore Metrics" (5:16 minute video)
• "Journal Metrics in Scopus: Source Normalized Impact per Paper" (blog entry with screenshots)

The database content includes about twice as many journal titles than Web of Science, the majority of which are science journals.

• Subject coverage. 70% Sciences and 31% Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities combined. 
• Publication types. Mainly peer-reviewed journals and books series, along with some conference proceedings and trade journals.
• Limitations. 1) Weak coverage of humanities and social sciences; and 2) sparse coverage of technical/trade journals.

If the videos below are gray, sign into Microsoft Stream with your EUID and password.

Enter the publicly available SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SCImago). Watch this short video on how to locate the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) for a title, SJR quartiles, and the h-index:

• "Searching the SCImago Journal Ranking Database" (4:20 minutes)

SCImago is developed from the information in the Scopus database from Elsevier. Therefore, it has the same limitations as Scopus - see the details in the box above.

Enter the publicly available Google Scholar on the Metrics page. Watch this short video that demonstrates how to find the h-indices for journals:

• "Google Scholar Metrics" (1:04 minute video)

Remember these points about Google Scholar:

• Subject coverage. Best coverage of humanities, and also strong in social sciences and STEM disciplines.
• Limitation. Google does not provide a list of the journals it tracks.