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Academic Journal Rankings: How to Find and Use Them
Academic journal rankings are an important consideration when deciding where to submit your research. Journals vary widely in prestige, and publishing in a higher-ranked journal can improve key academic metrics that support career advancement, including grant funding, promotion, and tenure. This guide explains how academic journal rankings work, the metrics used to measure both journals and individual researchers, where to find them, and how to use them alongside other factors when choosing a journal for submission.
How Are Academic Journal Rankings Measured?
Several metrics are used to rank academic journals, evaluate individual articles, and measure an academic's overall research output. Understanding these metrics helps you interpret journal rankings and assess where your work may have the greatest impact.
Journal Ranking Metrics
The impact factor is one of the most widely used metrics for ranking academic journals. It measures the average number of citations received per article published in a journal. One commonly cited criticism of the impact factor is that journals publishing review articles tend to score higher, since reviews are cited more frequently than original research articles.
The eigenfactor is an additional value assigned to academic journals. It's calculated based on the total number of citations from articles published within a journal. Larger, well-cited journals will have higher eigenfactors than smaller journals, even if the smaller journals are also highly cited. The journal Nature, for example, consistently maintains a high eigenfactor score.
Article-Level Metrics
The article influence score measures the average impact of a single article within a journal. It's calculated by dividing the eigenfactor by the total number of articles published in the journal over a given period. Scores above one indicate above-average impact, while scores below one suggest lower relative impact.
Metrics for Individual Academics
The h-index measures both the output and impact of an individual researcher. A researcher with an h-index of 10 has published at least 10 papers that have each been cited at least 10 times.
The g-index was developed in 2006 to give greater weight to highly cited publications. It accounts for the cumulative impact of an author's most-cited work, making it a more nuanced measure than the h-index for researchers with a small number of highly influential papers. The g-index isn't yet as widely used as the h-index.
The i10-index is a simpler metric used exclusively by Google Scholar. It counts the number of publications an author has that have received more than 10 citations. While easy to calculate and freely available, its limitation is that it's only measured by one platform.
Where to Find Academic Journal Rankings
Several free tools are available for finding academic journal rankings, impact factors, eigenfactors, and citation scores. For a broader guide to the databases where graduate researchers locate the journals they're considering, see our article on where to find academic journals.
- Journal Citation Reports: the primary source for impact factor data, maintained by Clarivate.
- Eigenfactor.org: allows you to search for eigenfactor scores and article influence scores for specific journals.
- Google Scholar: publishes a ranked list of top academic journals based on the h5-index, a measure of citations over the past five years; also provides h-index, i10-index, and citation counts for individual academics.
- Scopus: provides a CiteScore for each journal, calculated as the number of citations generated over four years divided by the total number of articles published.
- SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR): draws on Scopus data and provides comprehensive ranking information including impact factor, citation score, scope, and country of origin, along with graphical data visualizations; one of the most detailed free tools available.
- ResearchGate: provides an estimated h-index for individual academics based on their publication and citation history.
Should You Rely on Journal Rankings Alone?
Academic journal rankings are a useful starting point, but researchers have raised valid concerns about relying on them exclusively. Publication volume is highly correlated with h-index values, which means the metric may reflect productivity more than research quality. Mathematicians have also argued that reducing a researcher's career to a single numerical value is an oversimplification of academic quality.
In addition to journal rankings, academics should consider how well a journal matches their specific research topic. Publishing in a journal that closely aligns with your field offers two practical advantages. First, specialized journals often have faster review times than top-ranked generalist journals, which matters significantly for early-career academics who need to build their publication record quickly. Second, a more focused readership means your paper is more likely to be read and cited by researchers in your field, potentially leading to greater real-world research impact. For a fuller treatment of how to use rankings strategically when choosing where to submit, see our companion article on how to find and use academic journal rankings.
Free tools are available to help identify the best journal match for your article:
Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission
Regardless of which journal you target, the quality of your manuscript is a critical factor in acceptance. Peer reviewers at high-ranking journals scrutinize not only the research itself but also the clarity, precision, and presentation of the writing. Even strong research can face rejection if the manuscript contains grammatical errors, unclear phrasing, or inconsistent formatting.
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For more on journal selection and the broader publication process, see our companion articles on where to find academic journals, how to find and use academic journal rankings, and examples of academic journals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the impact factor of an academic journal?
The impact factor is one of the most widely used metrics for ranking academic journals. It measures the average number of citations received per article published in a journal over a two-year period and is published annually by Clarivate in the Journal Citation Reports. A journal with a higher impact factor is generally considered more prestigious within its subject category, although impact factors shouldn't be compared across different fields because citation practices vary enormously by discipline. One commonly cited criticism of the impact factor is that journals publishing review articles tend to score higher than journals publishing primarily original research, since reviews are typically cited more frequently. Despite these limitations, the impact factor remains the single most cited metric in academic hiring, promotion, and grant decisions, and the most useful single number for comparing journals within the same field.
What is the difference between impact factor and eigenfactor?
Impact factor and eigenfactor are related but distinct measures of journal influence. Impact factor measures the average number of citations per article over a two-year period and is independent of journal size. Eigenfactor measures the total citation impact of a journal, accounting for both the number of citations and the prestige of the citing journals, similar in concept to Google's PageRank algorithm. Eigenfactor is influenced by journal size; larger journals that publish more articles generally have higher eigenfactor scores than smaller journals, even when the smaller journals are highly cited per article. The article influence score is derived from the eigenfactor by dividing it by the total number of articles published in the journal, producing a per-article measure that's more comparable across journals of different sizes. Researchers comparing journals should consider both impact factor (a per-article measure) and eigenfactor or article influence score (a journal-level measure) for a more complete picture.
What is the h-index and how is it calculated?
The h-index is a metric for measuring the productivity and impact of an individual researcher's published work. A researcher has an h-index of n if they have published at least n papers that have each been cited at least n times. A researcher with an h-index of 10 has published at least 10 papers that have each been cited at least 10 times; a researcher with an h-index of 25 has published at least 25 papers cited at least 25 times each. The h-index attempts to balance research output (the number of papers published) against research impact (the number of citations received). Limitations include that it favors researchers with long publication records over early-career researchers, it varies enormously by field (h-indexes in the life sciences are typically higher than h-indexes in mathematics or the humanities), and it can be inflated by self-citation and citation gaming. The h-index is calculated automatically by Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus, although the value reported by each platform varies based on which publications are indexed.
How is the g-index different from the h-index?
The g-index, developed in 2006, gives greater weight to highly cited publications than the h-index does. While the h-index counts the number of papers with at least n citations, the g-index considers the cumulative citation count of the top g papers, with the requirement that those g papers together have received at least g squared citations. This means the g-index is more sensitive to a researcher's most influential work, while the h-index is more sensitive to consistent productivity. A researcher with a small number of highly cited papers will typically have a g-index notably higher than their h-index. The g-index isn't yet as widely used as the h-index, partly because the major databases (Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus) display h-index more prominently, but it provides a useful complement when evaluating researchers whose impact is concentrated in a few highly influential publications rather than spread across many papers.
Where can I find the impact factor of a journal for free?
Several free tools provide journal ranking information, although the official impact factor from the Journal Citation Reports requires institutional library access. SCImago Journal and Country Rank at scimagojr.com is the most comprehensive free alternative, providing the SJR score (a prestige-weighted citation measure based on Scopus data), quartile rankings (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) within subject categories, and trend data going back several years. Eigenfactor.org provides eigenfactor scores and article influence scores for free. Google Scholar Metrics at scholar.google.com publishes h5-index rankings of top journals by subject area. Scopus Sources provides CiteScore values, which are similar to impact factor but use a four-year citation window for greater stability. Many journals display their impact factor on their own website, but researchers should verify the figure through Clarivate or another official source rather than relying on self-reported numbers, since predatory journals sometimes claim metrics they don't actually hold.
Should researchers rely on journal rankings alone when choosing where to submit?
No. Journal rankings are a useful starting point but should be one input among several when choosing where to submit. Scope fit (whether the journal publishes work similar to yours in subject area, methodology, and theoretical framing) is the single most important factor in successful submission, because a paper that doesn't fit the journal's scope is desk-rejected regardless of how well it's written. Audience reach within your specific subfield matters more than overall prestige, since a paper read and cited by the right researchers in a specialist journal often has more real-world impact than the same paper buried in a higher-ranked generalist journal. Practical factors including rejection rate, average time to first decision, and time to publication also matter, particularly for early-career researchers on a tight timeline for promotion or grant renewal. Many researchers use journal rankings to create a shortlist of journals at the appropriate prestige level for their paper and then evaluate scope fit, audience, and turnaround time within that shortlist.
Content produced by Patti F., PhD
Company Founder, Professor at Research University
Reviewed by Editor World editorial staff. Editor World provides professional English editing, proofreading, copy editing, line editing, substantive editing, and developmental editing services for academic researchers, doctoral candidates, faculty, business professionals, students, and authors worldwide. BBB A+ accredited since 2010. Native English editors from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada with subject-matter expertise across the social sciences, the natural and physical sciences, medicine, engineering, computer science, and the humanities. No AI tools are used at any stage.