Impact factor
MEASURE OF MEAN NUMBER OF CITATIONS PER ARTICLE OF AN ACADEMIC JOURNAL
Impact factors; Journal impact factor; Impact rating; Impact Factor; Immediacy index; Journal cited half-life; Aggregate impact factor; Journal influence index; Paper influence index; ISI Impact Factor; Impact ratio (citation); Fake impact factor; Journal Impact Factor; Five-year impact factor; Global Impact Factor; Citefactor; Universal Impact Factor; Scientific impact; Scholar Article Impact Factor; Journal citation indicator; CiteFactor
The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as indexed by Clarivate's Web of Science. As a journal-level metric, it is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field; journals with higher impact factor values are given the status of being more important, or carry more prestige in their respective fields, than those with lower values.