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As from title. Not all journals provide the impact factor on their homepage. For those who don't where can I find their impact factor ?

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  • For latecomers, I'd like to find a free API for finding impact factor. Thomspon Reuters has a private API. The other suggestions below don't have APIs which return Impact Factor (or alternatives) for journals.
    – Jack Wasey
    Feb 14, 2017 at 23:45

4 Answers 4

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If your institution has a subscription to Journal Citation Reports (JCR), you can check it there. Try this URL:

https://jcr.clarivate.com

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  • 39
    Does anyone else think it somewhat ironic that even information about Impact Factors is hidden behind a paywall?
    – Greg S
    Feb 27, 2012 at 18:52
  • 4
    I expected it. Perhaps that's my cynicism. It's a metric that publishers could see value in and so some businesses will try to make them pay for what Google does for free.
    – mac389
    Mar 3, 2015 at 13:57
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Apart from the ones already mentioned there are two excellent open access options.

Eigenfactor is quite authoritative, and depending on field its metrics may carry the same weight as the Reuters stuff. They also offer the ISI metric (impact factor)using the exact same formula. You can search by ISSN, journal names, discipline etc.

However when I make my own decision on an appropriate journal to target for publishing my articles, then I use SCImago Journal & Country Rank. They have a wide variety of metrics, which include upcoming ones like H-index, the traditional impact factor, and other tweaked versions of the same. One of most useful functions on Scimago is the ability to compare a set of journals using a graph format and any metric that you desire. This can be exceptionally helpful in identifying the prestigious dinosaurs and the new but cutting edge journals. Placing your article is half the game, so this is incredibly useful.

That said, this site does not appear to have the same level of authority. So, while it is good for one to get a good feel of the quality of a journal, it doesn't carry the same authority in a formal evaluation as Eigenfactor or ISI. Plus, if I understand correctly, their database goes back only up to 1996, though their coverage of even lesser known journals is comprehensive. This would make it difficult to judge the impact of an article published way back (but for older articles, citations are the standard measure anyway).

I also feel it is a shame to be paying to access impact factor statistics. Even if you cannot publish open access, at least the rent seeking involved in paying for the ISI rankings can be avoided by using the open access rankings.

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  • Is Scimago updated? The IF don't seem to match Sep 9, 2018 at 10:56
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There is a list at Science Gateway.

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You should not be able to access Impact Factors on a large scale from anywhere beyond Clarivate Analytics' (commercial) Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and InCites.

The reason is stated in the Terms of Use for Clarivate Analytics' products, and for InCites specifically. For instance, the product terms for InCites (as of May 2020) states that:

(b) Extracts. You may include limited extracts of our data that have no independent commercial value and could not be used as a substitute for any service (or a substantial part of it) provided by us, our affiliates or third party providers, in internal documents and systems that are your property, provided that you do not create a searchable database. (c) Distribution. You may distribute limited extracts of our data that have no independent commercial value and could not be used as a substitute for any service (or a substantial part of it) provided by us, our affiliates or third party providers, to third parties as incidental samples for illustrative or demonstration purposes only.

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