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This tutorial will show you how to determine the impact factor of journals in the sciences.
We are going to use a resource called "Journal Citation Reports", the science edition.
To start this process go to either the main campus library homepage or the Global Campus library homepage.
There is a menu bar across the screen. Hover over "Resources" in the left-hand corner of the navigation bar,
and scroll down until you find "Databases A-Z".
We're going to click "Databases A-Z".
This will bring you to a new web page that will allow you to search
all of the databases you have access to as a CMU student.
Locate the letter "J" across the top here.
And click.
Now we're looking for "Journal Citation Reports".
Now, right here is the list of databases that the letter "J" has pulled up.
"Journal Citation Reports" is the second one from the top.
We're going to click that. Now if you're coming in from off campus, at this point, you'll be asked to authenticate
by entering your CMU Global ID and password.
Once you have entered your CMU Global ID and password,
you will be taken to the interfaces seen here.
We want to make sure that we have selected the "JCR Science Edition" across the top.
There is the option for "JCR Social Sciences Edition".
We want to make sure that we've selected "JCR Science Edition".
Located next to "JCR Science Edition" is a drop-down menu with a number of years.
We want to make sure we've selected the most current year.
Click that and we're going to click "Submit".
You will be able to select from any number of science fields from the list.
Let's go down to biology. We're going to click that, and click "Submit".
Now, we can see that there are 83 listed journals in Journal Citation Reports in the area of biology.
They're listed alphabetically by title, as you can see.
We do have the option to sort our results by this drop-down menu in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
You can sort by journal title, total cites, impact factor, and so on.
For our purposes, we're going to select "Impact Factor", and sort again.
Ok, this has arranged our data so it's a little easier for us to read.
If we go to the sixth column from the left, "Impact Factor", we can see
the impact factors are listed from highest to lowest.
Now, this impact factor is the average impact factor in the past year.
We can see that right next to it is the 5-Year impact factor, which is the average impact factor over the past five years for that journal.
Now, the higher the number, the higher the impact factor, the more respected that journal is,
and as you go down to lower numbers,
the less of an impact factor that journal has had.
This is how you go about determining the impact factor of journals.
Again, you're using a resource called "Journal Citation Reports Science Edition".
If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to contact a librarian.