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Research Metrics

Research metrics are the Bibliometric tools used across the publishing industry as indicators
of research performance, both at the journal and at the author level. Two crucial ingredients of
bibliometric studies are the number of publications and the number of times those publications are
cited. Citations-based Journal Impact Factor (JIF), ever since its introduction, has been one of the
most important parameters for journal evaluation. For a long time, this was the only tool available
for assessing the performance of research journals. At present there is a growing range of different
research metrics, which are available both at journal as well as at author level, from the traditional
Impact Factor to Eigen factor, h-index to Altmetrics, and beyond.

Based on a wealth of resources available in Science Citation Index (SCI) database, the Institute of
Scientific Information (ISI) introduced a tool for ranking academic journals based on citations they
received and impact they created in the scientific communities. Since 1975, SCI started publishing JIF
and Immediacy Index as part of Journal Citation Reports (JCR), providing an immediate peep into
the citation data. From its beginning, the SCI database included details of institution affiliation of all
authors for any article published in a journal. This facilitated research collaborations, while publishing
journal articles, not only in the case of writing research papers but also in the case of laboratory
experimentations. In fact, ISI database laid the footprints of collaborative research and its eventual
globalization of scientific research right from the beginning.

The underlying logic of all these metrics is related to the citations received by the articles published
in a particular journal, both at the article level and collectively for the journal. It is presumed that
the more the number of citations received by an article published, the more important it would be
considered, in other words it is presumed that a quality paper is cited more often than an average
paper. In case the articles published in a journal receive “on the average” higher number of citations,
the more prestigious it becomes to publish in that journal. Often, while quantitatively calculating the
research metrics the self-citations are taken out. Self-citation occurs when an author cites his own
previous paper or a journal article cites papers already published in the same journal. There is nothing
unethical in self-citations and journal self-citations. However, excessive self-citation can create doubts
amongst reviewers, information analysts, and others from the research evaluation perspectives.

Journal Metrics

Impact Factor (IF) or Journal Impact Factor (JIF)

The Impact Factor (IF) is probably the most talked about metric for assessing journal performance.
The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) attempts to quantify the idea of citations so as to apply it to large
number of journals published across diverse range of disciplines. Designed to help librarians with
the collection and management of journals in the 1960s, it has since then also become a common
proxy for journal quality. After using journal statistical data in-house to compile the Science Citation
Index (SCI) for many years, ISI (now Clarivate Analytics) began to publish Journal Citation Reports
(JCR) in 1975 as part of the SCI and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).

JCR perhaps offers a systematic and objective means to evaluate the world’s leading journals, with
statistically quantifiable citation data. The JCR provides quantitative tool for ranking, evaluating,
categorizing, and comparing journals. The JIF is one of these, which is a simple research metric, it’s
the average number of citations received in a given year by the articles published in the journal within
a two-year window immediately preceding the year. The ISI introduced JIF as an important tool

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