Academic Collaboration
What Is a Good Impact Factor for a Journal
Learn what is considered a good impact factor for a journal, why it matters in academic publishing, and how it guides research choices.
Sep 10, 2025
Academic collaboration fuels innovation, but where your work is published matters just as much as the research itself. In peer-reviewed publishing, the impact factor is often seen as a proxy for a journal’s reputation and reach. But what is a good impact factor for a journal, really? And how much weight should it carry when choosing where to submit your work? This article breaks down how impact factors are calculated, what they signify across disciplines, and how to evaluate whether a journal is the right fit for your research goals. Understanding this metric can help you make informed decisions that improve visibility, citation potential, and academic credibility.
And suppose you’re working on submissions or collaborative drafts. In that case, an AI research and writing partner can help streamline literature reviews, organize references, and polish your manuscript for the right journal, impact factor, and all.
Table Of Contents
Importance of Journal Impact Factors
Journal benchmarking: Comparing Journals in the Same Field
JIF allows for a numerical comparison of journals within the same discipline. This enables researchers to identify journals with stronger reputations or greater influence in their field.
Publishing decisions: Choosing where to publish
Authors often prefer journals with higher JIFs because they associate them with higher visibility and academic recognition.
Institutional use: Helping libraries and publishers make decisions
Libraries and publishers use JIF when deciding on acquisitions, marketing strategies, and even launching new journals.
Perception of reliability: Signaling trustworthiness
A higher JIF often signals to readers and researchers that the journal is a trusted source of information.
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What Is a Good Impact Factor for a Journal
Although the impact factor was initially intended to help university librarians identify suitable academic journals, it has become much more significant today. Given the fact that thousands of journals and even more academic papers and articles are published every year, it would be challenging and overwhelming to discern first-rate examples from those of lesser quality. That’s what the impact factor is used for. But what is a good impact factor? The answer depends on the discipline and the specialization of the journal. If a journal has a good impact factor, it’s more likely to receive more citations and acknowledgements than other journals in the same field.
What Is a Bad Impact Factor?
As mentioned before, an impact factor indicates the number of times the content of a journal published in a period of two years was cited in the third year. Now, it’s imperative to mention that the impact factor is used to compare journals in the same subject category. The Journal Citation Reports (JCR) distinguish among 21 broad categories. These are (in alphabetical order) Agricultural Sciences, Arts & Humanities (Interdisciplinary), Biology & Biochemistry, Chemistry, Clinical Medicine, Computer Science, Economics & Business, Engineering, Environment/Ecology, Geosciences, History & Archaeology, Literature & Language, Materials Science, Mathematics, Multidisciplinary, Philosophy & Religion, Physics, Plant & Animal Science, Psychiatry/Psychology, Social Sciences (General), and Visual & Performing Arts.
One reason the impact factors of different subject categories can’t be compared is that they have varying numbers of citations.Therefore, it’s impossible to determine what constitutes a “bad” and a “good” impact factor for academic journals across all fields. You can only compare the impact factor of a journal with other journals in the same category.
When it comes to impact factor scores, academic journals can have any score starting from 0 (meaning no citations of the relevant content in the observed period). The question of what a good impact factor and a bad impact factor are may vary depending on the journal’s field of research. For example, in the History category in 2020, the highest impact factor was 2.195. In the Oncology category, this value would only qualify for the top 70%, which is not a very prestigious ranking.
Recall that when computing the impact factor, only citations of the newest articles from the previous two years are considered. However, in many disciplines, it takes much longer for new findings to spread and get cited. For this reason, no impact factors are computed for the journals in the Arts & Humanities Citations Index – they would be so low even for the top journals.
What Is an Average Impact Factor?
The same rules apply to average impact factors – they depend on the field of science of the journal. The average varies from category to category. Sticking with our previous examples, according to JCR in 2020, the average was 0.697 in History, while in Oncology it was as high as 8.307 (12 times higher). According to JCR 2020, 83.51% of the journals have an impact factor equal to or greater than 1. Furthermore, according to the same database, 11,872 of the 12,360 journals possessing an impact factor have their IF between 0 and 10 (i.e., 96.35%).
What Is a Good Impact Factor?
The higher the impact factor, the better and the more critical the journal is. Out of the 229 categories in which impact factors are computed, in 2020, the median IF was higher than 4 in 11 categories, it was between 3 and 4 in 53 categories, and in the majority, that is, in 165 categories, it was lower than 3. An impact factor of 10 can be considered excellent – although unreachable in many categories – as in 2020, only 3.65% of the journals had an impact factor of 10 or higher. An impact factor of 10 isn’t even the highest score, though. For example, the CA-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians has an impact factor score of 508.702, while Nature Reviews Materials had an IF of 66.308 for the year of 2020
How to Calculate the Impact Factor of a Journal in 4 Steps
A journal's Impact Factor (IF) is calculated by dividing the number of citations in a given year to articles published in the two preceding years by the total number of "citable items" (like articles and reviews) published in those two years. For example, the 2024 IF would be the number of citations received in 2024 for articles published in 2022 and 2023, divided by the sum of all citable articles published in 2022 and 2023. Here's the formula and a step-by-step breakdown: Formula: 2024 Impact Factor = (Citations in 2024 to articles from 2022 and 2023) / (Total citable items published in 2022 and 2023)
Steps to Calculate
1. Identify the "Current Year" and "Previous Two Years"
For a given year's Impact Factor (e.g., 2024), the "current year" is 2024, and the "previous two years" are 2022 and 2023.
2. Count the Citations
In the "current year" (2024), find out how many times articles published in the "previous two years" (2022 and 2023) have been cited by other indexed journals.
3. Count the Citable Items
Determine the total number of "citable items" that were published in the journal during the "previous two years" (2022 and 2023). Citable items typically include articles, reviews, and sometimes proceedings papers. Items like editorials, retractions, or letters are usually excluded.
4. Divide to Find the Impact Factor
Divide the total number of citations (from Step 2) by the total number of citable items (from Step 3).
How to Use the Journal Impact Factor
Using Otio to Optimize Your Research Process
Before diving into journal impact factors, it's crucial to have a streamlined research process. Otio is an AI-native workspace designed to help researchers and knowledge workers manage content overload. It allows you to collect data from various sources, including bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos. With Otio, you can extract key takeaways using AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. This tool also assists in creating draft outputs from the information you've gathered, helping you go from reading to writing much faster. Otio is more than just a research aid; it's your AI research and writing partner.
Evaluating Journals: Comparing Apples to Apples
Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is most effective when used to compare journals within the same discipline. For instance, a journal with a higher JIF in the field of medicine or biology is generally more widely cited and has greater visibility than its peers. Understanding the nuances of your field will help you make sense of JIF and use it to your advantage.
Choosing Where to Publish: Aim for Visibility
If your goal is to maximize the exposure of your research, targeting a journal with a high JIF in your field can increase your work's visibility and citation potential. However, it's essential to balance this goal with the practicality of getting published, as high-JIF journals often have low acceptance rates.
Supporting Publication Decisions: Balancing Acts and Audience Fits
Use JIF to create a list of target journals that balance top-tier options with mid-range journals that still carry credibility. Also, consider the scope, readership, and relevance of the journal to ensure your research reaches the right audience.
Institutional and Library Use: Beyond Individual Researchers
Universities and research institutions often use JIF to decide which journals to subscribe to. Committees may also consider where researchers publish when evaluating funding and promotions. While journals with higher JIFs can strengthen a CV, this should not be the sole criterion.
Personal Research Strategy: Guiding Your Literature Review and Building Credibility
High-JIF journals are a good starting point when looking for influential or frequently cited work. Publishing in these journals can also help build your professional reputation, especially early in your career.
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Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio: Try Otio for Free Today
Otio is an AI-native workspace designed to help researchers, knowledge workers, and students deal with content overload. It allows you to collect data from a wide range of sources, including bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos. You can then extract key takeaways from these sources with AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. Finally, Otio helps you create draft outputs using the information you have collected, enabling you to go from reading list to first draft faster. This is especially helpful for writing research papers and essays.
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