{"id":104,"date":"2018-01-22T20:01:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T20:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-webliteracy\/chapter\/finding-a-journals-impact-factor\/"},"modified":"2018-01-22T20:01:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T20:01:56","slug":"finding-a-journals-impact-factor","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-webliteracy\/chapter\/finding-a-journals-impact-factor\/","title":{"raw":"Finding a Journal's Impact Factor","rendered":"Finding a Journal’s Impact Factor"},"content":{"raw":"

We mentioned earlier that our process is really one of elimination. In a world where information is plentiful, we can be a bit demanding about what counts as evidence. When it comes to research, one gating expectation can be that published academic research cited for a claim come from respected peer-reviewed journals.\n\nConsider this journal:\n\"\"\n\nIs it a journal that gives any authority to this article? Or is it just another web-based paper mill?\n\nOur first check is to see what the \u201cimpact factor\u201d of the journal is. This is a measure of the journal\u2019s influence in the academic community. While a flawed metric for assessing the relative importance of journals, it is a useful tool for quickly identifying journals which are not part of a known circle of academic discourse, or which are not peer-reviewed.\n\nWe search Google for PLOS Medicine, and it pulls up an information card for us with an impact factor.\n\n\"\"\n\nImpact factor can go into the 30s, but we\u2019re using this as a quick elimination test, not a ranking, so we\u2019re happy with anything over 1. We still have work to do on this article, but it\u2019s worth keeping in the mix.\n\nWhat about this one?\n\n\"\"\n\nIn this case we get a result with a link to this journal at the top, but no card, as there is no registered impact factor for this journal:\n\n\"\"\n\nAgain, we stress that the article here may be excellent -- we don\u2019t know. Likewise, there are occasionally articles published in the most prestigious journals that are pure junk. Be careful in your use of impact factor -- a journal with an impact factor of 10 is not necessarily better than a journal with an impact factor of 3, especially if you are dealing with a niche subject.\n\nBut in a quick and dirty analysis we have to say that the PLOS Medicine article is more trustworthy than the Journal of Obesity and Weight-loss Medication article. In fact, if you were deciding whether to reshare a story in your feed and the evidence for the story came from this Obesity journal, I\u2019d skip reposting it entirely.<\/p>","rendered":"

We mentioned earlier that our process is really one of elimination. In a world where information is plentiful, we can be a bit demanding about what counts as evidence. When it comes to research, one gating expectation can be that published academic research cited for a claim come from respected peer-reviewed journals.<\/p>\n

Consider this journal:
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Is it a journal that gives any authority to this article? Or is it just another web-based paper mill?<\/p>\n

Our first check is to see what the \u201cimpact factor\u201d of the journal is. This is a measure of the journal\u2019s influence in the academic community. While a flawed metric for assessing the relative importance of journals, it is a useful tool for quickly identifying journals which are not part of a known circle of academic discourse, or which are not peer-reviewed.<\/p>\n

We search Google for PLOS Medicine, and it pulls up an information card for us with an impact factor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Impact factor can go into the 30s, but we\u2019re using this as a quick elimination test, not a ranking, so we\u2019re happy with anything over 1. We still have work to do on this article, but it\u2019s worth keeping in the mix.<\/p>\n

What about this one?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In this case we get a result with a link to this journal at the top, but no card, as there is no registered impact factor for this journal:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Again, we stress that the article here may be excellent — we don\u2019t know. Likewise, there are occasionally articles published in the most prestigious journals that are pure junk. Be careful in your use of impact factor — a journal with an impact factor of 10 is not necessarily better than a journal with an impact factor of 3, especially if you are dealing with a niche subject.<\/p>\n

But in a quick and dirty analysis we have to say that the PLOS Medicine article is more trustworthy than the Journal of Obesity and Weight-loss Medication article. In fact, if you were deciding whether to reshare a story in your feed and the evidence for the story came from this Obesity journal, I\u2019d skip reposting it entirely.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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