Journal Rankings, Research Impact, and Scholarly Publishing: JCR (Journal Citation Reports)

A journal impact factor measures how often the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year or time period. The higher the journal impact factor score, the more frequently articles from that journal are being cited by other publications.

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) measures the citation data of journals indexed in Web of Science.

• Publishing patterns vary among academic disciplines. 
• What might be considered a high journal impact factor score in one field may not be high in another.
• It is more useful to use the score to compare journals in the same academic field.

2019 Impact Factor for Nature