What is the impact factor?
This is the best-known quality indicator and the most highly valued by evaluation bodies, obtained through the tool JCR (Journal Citation Reports ). It lets us compare journals and assess the relative importance of a publication in its scientific field. JCR is based on the average number of times an article published in a given journal is cited. For instance:
Citations received in 2020 for articles published in 2018-2019 IF journal in 2020 = ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No. of articles published in 2018 and 2019 |
Quartile
All the journals belonging to a category are grouped in quartiles. A quartile is a ranking measurement which synthesizes statistical data into significant groups, so that:
Q1: the first quartile corresponds to the 25% of journals with the highest impact factor
Q2: the second quartile is from 25% to 50%
Q3: the third quartile is from 50% to 75%
Q4: the fourth quartile is from 75% to 100%