Journal Imapct Factor

The journal impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. The impact factor will help the user to evaluate a journal's relative importance, especially when it is compared to others in the same field.

How to Look up a Journal Impact Factor:

Note: You may access additional help, by clicking the Help button available on many of the screens located on the Research Medical Library web site.

1. Go to the Research Medical Library web site (accessible through M. D. Anderson’s intranet or Internet).

2. Click the link to Databases under Resources.

3. Scroll down the screen and select Journal Citation Reports &endash; Impact Factors (ISI Web of Science) &endash; ISI under Core Databases.

4. Click Search for a specific journal radio button under Select an option.

Click SUBMIT button.

5. You can search by Full Journal Title, Abbreviated Journal Title, Title Word (recommended), or ISSN on the Journal Search screen. Make a selection from the drop list under 1) Search by. (In the example that follows, the Search by entry is Title Word).

6. Enter a title, partial title, or an ISSN (capitalization does not affect your search) under 2) Type search term. (In the example that follows, the search term entry is Cellular).

Click the Search button

The Journal Summary List will appear, displaying the journals that match your selection and sort criteria.

$images\journal_summary_list.gif$

How to create a marked list of selective journals (see sample screen above)

Note: Creating a marked list is not a prerequisite to performing other look-ups, such as displaying the last five years’ impact factor.

1. Click the check box(s) under the heading Mark and next to the journal(s) you wish to flag.

2. Click Update Marked List button to identify journals for printing and saving.

3. Click the Marked List button.

The Marked Journal List screen (see below) will display a running list of all documents marked for printing and saving. The last available year's impact factor will be shown for each journal.

You will notice that additional buttons appear on the top and bottom of the screen, allowing the user to perform various functions.

$images\marked_journal_list.gif$