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Understanding Journal Metrics
Understanding journal metrics
As part of our commitment to publishing impactful research that helps to influence and inform policy, practice, and the public, Sage has committed to the five principles for publishers outlined in the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). To fulfill our obligation, we make article-level metrics available to support assessment based on the content of the article rather than a journal’s publication metrics, and we present a variety of metrics for researchers to use to assess a journal’s performance. Visit our DORA website to learn more about the various ways we are taking action.
This page is your primer on what journal and article metrics are and how to use them.
Journal and article-level metrics
Publication metrics measure the influence and reach of research contributions for both journals and articles. These metrics can serve as a proxy for quality and impact of an academic work or journal and can help ensure researchers receive recognition for their contributions.
Metrics can also help maintain transparency and fairness in scholarly publishing. We present the following journal and article metrics to give researchers a comprehensive overview of a journal’s performance:
- Journal-level metrics provide a quick assessment of a journal's influence. A journal's metrics page can include peer review speed, production speed, acceptance ratio, and usage, along with impact data from abstracting and indexing services.
- Article-level metrics describe the impact of individual research papers. A journal’s article-level metrics include downloads and citations, offering valuable insights into a researcher’s contribution to the discipline and to the wider scholarly community.
Understanding research metrics
All Sage journals have a journal metrics webpage, and all article webpages have article metrics. You can read more about the available metrics below.
You can view a journal’s metrics through the journal’s website by clicking the Journal overview and metrics link in the Journal information menu. This page also includes an Abstract & indexing tab which lists the databases that include the journal.
Readership
Readership metrics are included on the journal’s metrics page along with individual article pages.
Full Text usage: Full text usage is the sum of PDF, HTML, and EPUB downloads from the journal platform during the prior calendar year.
Peer Review and Production
Sage encourages all journals to display average peer review decision speed, production speed, and acceptance ratio on the journal’s metrics site.
Peer review and production speeds can provide useful insights into a journal's process. Keep in mind that some journals may have longer turnaround times due to extra submission and review steps or additional proofreading. Visit the journal's submission guidelines for more information about their peer review process.
Time to first decision: The average number of calendar days from submission to first decision within the previous full calendar year. First decisions include all original submissions, inclusive of all article types, that receive a decision of accept, revise, or reject, including desk rejections. Revisions are not included.
Time from acceptance to publication: The average number of business days a manuscript spends in Sage Production within the previous full calendar year, beginning when the manuscript is exported from Sage Track and ending when the manuscript is published online.
Acceptance ratio: The acceptance ratio represents the percentage of manuscripts accepted out of all submissions that received a final decision (accept or reject) within the previous calendar year. This includes all article types.
For more information about Sage's peer review process, please visit Your Paper and Peer Review.
Impact Metrics
Citation metrics are produced by abstracting and indexing databases using their respective datasets. These metrics represent various methods for measuring the citation impact of published research on a journal level. Some examples are shown below:
Clarivate Analytics and Journal Citation Reports (JCR) metrics
Clarivate Analytics runs four separate journal indexing services: Social Science Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and Emerging Sources Citation Index. Clarivate utilizes this data to create the Web of Science online database. Additionally, Clarivate produces the annual Journal Citation Reports (JCR) based on citation data from the Web of Science.
Journal Citation Reports
The JCR calculates metrics to rank individual journals by their recent content’s citation frequency. You can find more information on JCR, including user guides and references, on Clarivate’s website.
Here are some brief descriptions of metric presented in the JCR:
- 2-year Impact Factor: The Journal Impact Factor is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the JCR year by the total number of citable articles published online in the two previous years. It is a measure of the average citation impact of a journal.
- 5-year Impact Factor: The 5-year Impact Factor is the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year. It provides a wider focus on the average citation impact of a journal and is especially appropriate for journals in subject categories that trend toward a longer citation life per article.
- Journal Citation Indicator (JCI): The algorithm used to calculate the JCI combines citation averages (like the Impact Factor) with category normalization. This calculation includes citations from the current year and prior 3 years to citable items published in the prior 3 years. Because the JCI is normalized for each category, a JCI of 1 represents the median of that category. A JCI above 1 means a better than average score, and a JCI below 1 represents a below average score. Because of the category normalization and broader reach of the JCI, it provides a comprehensive picture of a journal’s citation impact in recent years.
- Immediacy Index: The average number of times an article is cited in the year it is published. This provides a picture of the immediate citation impact of a document and is often a smaller number since same year citations are rare.
- Eigenfactor Score: The Eigenfactor Score calculation is based on the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year. It also considers which journals have contributed these citations so that highly cited journals will influence the network more than lesser cited journals. References from one article in a journal to another article from the same journal are removed, so that Eigenfactor Scores are not influenced by journal self-citation.
- Article Influence Score: The Article Influence Score determines the average influence of a journal's articles over the first five years after publication. It is calculated by multiplying the Eigenfactor Score by 0.01 and dividing by the number of articles in the journal, normalized as a fraction of all articles in all publications.
- Cited Half Life: The median age of the articles that were cited in the JCR year. Half of a journal's cited articles were published more recently than the cited half-life.
- Citing Half Life: The median age of articles cited by the journal in the JCR year.
View the full Glossary on Clarivate’s website.
Scopus, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), and CiteScore
Developed by Scopus and using their dataset, the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) metric expresses the average number of weighted citations received in the selected year by the documents published in the selected journal in the three previous years, i.e. weighted citations received in year X to documents published in the journal in years X-1, X-2 and X-3. Read the SCImago description of SJR and visit the Scopus website for more information.
- CiteScore: Scopus provides the journal's CiteScore, which is calculated as the total citations made in the CiteScore year and the prior three years to content published in the CiteScore year and the prior three years, divided by the total number of items published by the journal in the CiteScore year and prior three years.
- Source-normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): SNIP calculates a journal’s citation count per paper and divides it by the citation potential in the journal’s subject area to account for variability between subject categories.
- SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): The SJR weighs incoming citations according to the prestige of the publications they come from. Total, weighted citations made in the SCImago year to content published in a journal in the prior three years are divided by the total number of items published by the journal in the prior three years.
Google Scholar metrics
Google Scholar metrics provide a comprehensive compilation of citation numbers for a wide range of publications. This allows authors to measure the visibility and influence of a journal. Indexed publications are assigned three available metrics based on content published in the last five completed calendar years:
- h5-index: Google’s h5-index is a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of a journal’s entire scholarly output and performance over a five-year span; that is, the journal has published at least h number of articles that have been cited at least h number of times over the past five years. The h5-index measures quantity with quality by comparing publications to citations, and corrects for the disproportionate weight of highly cited publications or publications that have not yet been cited. The h5-median indicates that the median number of citations of those h articles with h+ citations.
- h5-median: The h5-median is calculated by finding the median number of citations for the articles that comprise a publication’s h5-index.
You can view article metrics from the article webpage by clicking the Metrics and citations link in the top menu bar. A pop-up page will open displaying the available metrics for that article. From this page, you can also sign up to receive citation alerts and be notified when the article is cited.
Article usage: The total number of views and downloads for the article, including HTML, ePUB, and PDF.
Article citations: A list of articles that cited the article per Web of Science or Crossref data.
Crossref: Crossref tracks the total number of citations linked to a publication. Citations must come from publications registered with Crossref.
Altmetric
Alternative metrics are becoming increasingly visible in scholarly publishing. Altmetric tracks online mentions of journal articles across online platforms and uses an algorithm to score accordingly. The Altmetric Attention score is a helpful measure of online engagement and visibility, but it is not directly linked to citations or usage.
Altmetric Attention Score: Weighted count of all the online attention Altmetric has found for an individual research output. This includes mentions in public policy documents and references in Wikipedia, the mainstream news, social networks, blogs, and more. This is the number that appears in the badges.
Visit Altmetric’s website for a list of Attention Sources tracked, along with Altmetric’s support site for FAQs and more information.
Want to know how your research is impacting policy?
Sage Policy Profiles is a new, free-to-use tool that enables researchers to discover how their work is impacting policy. Sage Policy Profiles lets researchers easily see specific citations of their work in policy documents and then illustrate and share that work’s impact graphically. The tool is powered by Overton, which hosts an extensive repository of global policy documents, guidelines, think-tank publications, and working papers.
Sage Policy Profiles has been honored by the Society for Scholarly Publishing as “Most Likely to Have the Most Positive Impact in Scholarly Communications” at their 2024 meeting.
Using research metrics
Journal and article-level impact metrics play a pivotal role in assessing the influence and significance of scholarly work. Journal-level metrics can aid researchers in gauging the prominence of a journal within their field. Article-level metrics, including citation counts, download statistics, and Altmetric scores offer insights into the impact of individual research papers. By analyzing these metrics, researchers and editors can identify trends and topics of interest.
Improving journal and article-level impact metrics requires a multi-faceted approach aimed at enhancing the quality, visibility, and engagement of scholarly work. In both cases, fostering a culture of collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement within the academic community can contribute to sustained growth in impact metrics. It's important to note that while metrics provide valuable insights, the goal remains the generation of meaningful and influential research.
For authors
- There are several ways to boost your article’s impact before and after publication. When preparing for submission, you can consider the following:
- Making your article open access: This can enhance visibility and accessibility, making your research available to a broader audience. Learn more about our Open Access options.
- Importance of keywords and key phrases for discoverability: Optimizing your article for search engines by carefully choosing keywords and repeating key phrases in the abstract. Learn more about search engine optimization strategies.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible by:
- Actively sharing your published articles through personal websites, social media platforms, and academic networks to increase the chances of reaching a wider readership and attracting citations. Sage Journals article access sharing lets you share a read-only version of an article with your friends and colleagues or on social media, visit the article sharing website for more information.
- Collaborating with colleagues and experts in related fields to extend the reach of your research and stimulate interdisciplinary discussions.
- Monitoring usage and citation counts to assess the resonance of your work and adapt your strategies accordingly.
- Tracking Altmetric engagement with your work outside of the research.
Discover more ways to promote your articles and maximize your impact.
For Editors
Impact metrics assist Editors in evaluating the success of specific initiatives or changes made to the journal's format or scope. By monitoring how these changes correlate with shifts in impact metrics, you can make informed adjustments to enhance the journal's standing and relevance. Impact metrics empower you to make data-driven decisions that optimize the journal's impact, reputation, and contribution to the scholarly community, all while fostering an environment that supports rigorous and influential research.
For journal-level impact, you can focus on curating a diverse range of high-quality content that addresses emerging research trends and challenges. Implementing rigorous peer review processes and maintaining ethical publishing standards will foster credibility and attract top-tier submissions.
Collaborations with well-respected researchers and institutions can also elevate a journal's reputation. Engaging in strategic marketing efforts, such as social media promotion and conference presence, can broaden the journal's reach and readership. Visit DORA’s website for research impact strategies and resources.
Learn more about citation strategies for your journal, such as: