Scholarly Publishing

Impact and dissemination are considerations when choosing a publication outlet. This may mean different things and have different weightings depending on your discipline. 

As a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the University of Melbourne is committed to the appropriate use of research metrics. DORA recommends using a broader definition of research impact to capture work that that leads to policy change, guides clinical practice, results in new software, demonstrates value of interdisciplinary research, or produces datasets for other researchers. 

When it comes to choosing where to publish, a responsible approach to metrics would mean:

• not relying on a single metric, such as Journal Impact Factor or impact quartile alone;
• taking a holistic view of different metrics, including traditional citation metrics and alternative metrics;
• using quantitative metrics to support or supplement qualitative evaluation;
• not prioritising impact metrics over meeting funder mandates or reaching your intended audience.

For more on the responsible use of metrics, see the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics and James Wilsdon's The Metric Tide (2015).

There are a broad range of metrics designed to measure the academic impact of journals and publishers. These are produced by different companies, publishers, or organisations, and use different measures and algorithms to quantify impact.

It is important to remember that impact metrics are not reliable reflections of venue quality and integrity, and may be open to manipulation through questionable practices such as self-citation. The significance of different metrics are also not comparable across disciplines.

Some of the most common impact metrics include:

• Journal Impact Factor (JIF). A journal’s JIF is calculated using recent citation data. Journals are assigned a JIF Quartile based on how their JIF compares to others in their category. Available through InCites Journal Citation Reports.
• Journal Citation Indicator (JCI). The JCI is a field-normalised measure of citations. A JCI of 1.0 indicates the journal’s citation impact is on par with others in its discipline or category. Available through InCites Journal Citation Reports.
• Scimago Journal Rank (SJR). A journal's SJR is intended to reflect its impact, influence, and prestige compared to others in its category. SJR numbers are used to assign journals into quartiles by field or discipline. Available through Scopus or Scimago Journal & Country Rank.
• CiteScore. Used for journals, book series, and conference proceedings, a CiteScore is the average number of citations that peer-reviewed contents received over a four-year period. Titles are given CiteScore Ranks for each of their disciplines or categories, assigning them into percentiles. Available through Scopus.
• Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP). The SNIP metric aims to account for disciplinary differences in citation practices. Available through Scopus.

See the Tools for decision making page for more information on these and other journal or publisher evaluation tools.

For more information, visit the following resources:

Alternative metrics Research impact