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I had submitted a paper in a journal whose impact factor was .78 according to Thompson Reuters citation reports in 2013. My paper got accepted in that journal and was published in 2014. The journal did not receive any impact factor for the year 2014. Sometimes I have to mention the impact factor of my papers with them but I do not know how to find the impact factor for this particular journal (It had impact factor when I submitted but when published it did not receive any impact factor). Please guide me what impact factor should I use for my above mentioned paper.

I have same question for change in the impact factor of a journal from submission time to publication time. Thank you.

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    Out of curiosity, when do you need to mention IFs? I never do in my field/country.
    – Kimball
    Aug 5, 2016 at 5:42
  • @Kimball It seems (from reading various questions here) that in some places/fields, people are asked to list these things along with their publications when applying for jobs. I have no idea which locations or fields this applies to though (seeing as I am in the same field as you, I have also never had to do this). Aug 5, 2016 at 7:35
  • Considering that IF is basically a measure of the quality of the journal and not the article itself, asking IF during interviews is a stupid practice. When people are stupid then feed them crap. Report the latest IF if it is higher than or equal to the one at the time of your publication. This is dishonesty but it is fine because you are not technically lying (an article has no impact factor in the first place).
    – WYSIWYG
    Aug 5, 2016 at 9:03

1 Answer 1

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Quick answer: the safest is to give the IF followed by the closest year of estimation: IF 3.5 (2013). The wisest is to understand why the journal does not have an IF for 2014: did it change its name, was it withdrawn from the JCR (journal citation report)?

Impact factors for one year can be available after a few months. You can mention other sources like Scimago, that may have other figures (eigenfactor, etc).

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