Evaluating Education Journals

Journal Citation Reports is a database that allows researchers to evaluate what journals are the best home for their publications. It provides information on topics such as: whether a journal is peer-reviewed; its acceptance rate; and more.

There are several ways to explore the data: you can browse by journal; browse by category; or run custom reports.

• Journal Citation Reports has a few specialized analytics which are helpful to define:

  • Journal Impact Factor: Measures the influence that a journal has in its field of study. The higher the number, the more influential the journal.

  • Eigenfactor Score: A ranking system that evaluates a journal's influence by closely evaluating citations of its articles. Citations from highly ranked journals are weighted to have a greater impact on the Eigenfactor Score than those from lower-ranked journals. Again, the higher the Eigenfactor Score, the more influential the journal. Note, though, that the Eigenfactor Score is likely to be much lower than the Journal Impact Factor. 

  • Normalized Eigenfactor Score: "The Normalized Eigenfactor Score is the Eigenfactor score normalized, by rescaling the total number of journals in the JCR each year, so that the average journal has a score of 1. Journals can then be compared and influence measured by their score relative to 1. For example, if a journal has a Normalized Eigenfactor Score of 5, that journal is considered to be 5 times as influential as the average journal in the JCR."