Skip to content
ENExplore Calculators

Journal Impact Factor Calculator

Work out journal impact factor instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Journal Impact Factor Calculator

The journal impact factor divides this year's citations to the previous two years' articles by the number of those articles. 4200 citations to 650 items gives 6.46. It is a journal-level average dominated by a few highly cited papers, so it says very little about any individual article - the core objection behind the DORA declaration.

Formulas

Impact factor

JIF = citations this year to the last two years / citable items in those two years

Window

a two-year citation window is the standard definition

Worked example

With the default values below, Journal Impact Factor Calculator returns Journal Impact Factor of 6.462. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Citations received this yearminimum 0
4,200
Citable items published two years agominimum 0
310
Citable items published last yearminimum 0
340

Results

Journal Impact Factor
6.462
Citable Items In The Window
650
Average Citations Per Item
6.462
Impact Band
High impact

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Impact factor
  3. 3Window
  4. 4Journal Impact Factor= 6.462
  5. 5Citable Items In The Window= 650
  6. 6Average Citations Per Item= 6.462
  7. 7Impact Band= High impact

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the impact factor criticised?

Because citation distributions are highly skewed, so the mean misrepresents typical articles. DORA urges against using it to judge individual researchers.

What counts as a citable item?

Research articles and reviews, but not editorials or letters - which is why the denominator can be negotiated and the metric gamed.

Related Calculators

Journal Impact Factor Calculator | Calcrivo