Editing Impact factor (section)

{{Short description|Measure of relative importance of a journal}}
{{About|a measure of journal influence|other similar metrics|Citation impact}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Citation metrics}}

The '''impact factor''' ('''IF''') or '''journal impact factor''' ('''JIF''') of an [[academic journal]] is a type of [[journal ranking]]. Journals with higher impact factor values are considered more prestigious or important within its field. 

IF is a [[scientometric]] index calculated by [[Clarivate]] that reflects the yearly mean number of [[citation]]s of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as indexed by Clarivate's [[Web of Science]].

While frequently used by universities and funding bodies to decide on promotion and research proposals, it has been criticised for distorting good scientific practices.<ref name="Waltman 366">{{cite journal |last1=Waltman |first1=Ludo |last2=Traag |first2=Vincent Antonio |date=2021-03-01 |title=Use of the journal impact factor for assessing individual articles: Statistically flawed or not? |journal=[[F1000Research]] |volume=9 |page=366 |doi=10.12688/f1000research.23418.2 |pmc=7974631 |pmid=33796272 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Curry 2018"/><ref name="nih2016">{{cite journal |last1=Hutchins |first1=BI |last2=Yuan |first2=X |last3=Anderson |first3=JM |last4=Santangelo |first4=GM |title=Relative Citation Ratio (RCR): A New Metric That Uses Citation Rates to Measure Influence at the Article Level. |journal=PLOS Biology |date=September 2016 |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=e1002541 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002541 |pmid=27599104|pmc=5012559 |doi-access=free }}</ref>