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Academic English & Research vocabulary · Peer Review and Publishing

Impact factor

Meaning in academic english & research, with examples

nounCommon term

In academic english & research, impact factor means: A yearly measure of how often articles in a journal are cited on average, based on citations in one year to items published in the two previous years.

In Turkish: etki faktörü, etki değeri

How it is used

The Journal Impact Factor is published by Clarivate in Journal Citation Reports for journals indexed in the Web of Science. Researchers talk about high-impact journals and a journal's impact factor. It measures journals, not individual articles or researchers, and varies greatly between fields.

Example sentences

  1. The journal has an impact factor of 4.2 and publishes mainly empirical studies.

  2. Impact factors in mathematics are usually much lower than in medicine.

Common collocations

  • high impact factor
  • journal impact factor
  • an impact factor of
  • high-impact journal
  • journalA regular publication containing research articles in a particular field, usually checked by peer review before publication.
  • citationA reference to a source in a piece of writing; also each time another publication refers to a work, counted as a measure of its influence.
  • open accessA way of publishing in which research articles are free online for anyone to read, download and often reuse, without a subscription.
  • peer reviewThe process in which experts in the same field evaluate a manuscript or grant proposal before it is accepted, revised or rejected.

More terms: Peer Review and Publishing

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