What is a journal impact factor?
Answer
The journal impact factor is a proprietary metric that measures of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It's one tool to help you evaluate a journal's relative importance, especially when you compare it to others in the same field. Impact Factors are only produced for journals indexed in Clarivate's Web of Science. CSUDH does not have access to the database Journal Citation Reports which provides impact factors. For other metrics to evaluate journals, check out our Metrics Research Guide.