What is journal impact factor (JIF)?

Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a number Clarivate calculates annually and publishes in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). It equals the total citations received in one year to articles a journal published in the prior two years, divided by the number of articles published in those two years. For example, NEJM's 2024 JIF is 78.5 and the Lancet's is 88.5. It measures a journal's average citation rate, not the quality of any individual paper.

Why can't I compare journal impact factors across different research fields?

Citation rates differ fundamentally between fields. Clinical medicine researchers cite aggressively - a major trial can accumulate thousands of citations quickly. Basic science fields like neuroscience have smaller author communities and cite less frequently. A JIF of 10 is lower tier in clinical medicine but high tier in neuroscience. Cross-field comparisons produce misleading conclusions. Always compare JIF within the same field using field-normalized ranges.

What does JIF not measure?

JIF measures a journal's average citation rate, not the quality of any individual paper published in it. High-IF journals still publish some weak papers; many influential papers appear in lower-IF journals. JIF also doesn't measure reproducibility, methodological rigor, clinical relevance, or long-term scientific importance. Review articles and methods papers inflate a journal's JIF without reflecting research quality.

How should I use JIF when deciding where to submit my manuscript?

Use JIF as one input among several, calibrated to your field. Check the field-normalized ranges for your discipline - what counts as 'top tier' varies widely. Factor in acceptance rates (lower-IF journals sometimes have higher acceptance rates), review timelines, open access requirements from your funder, and the readership you're trying to reach. Don't use JIF as the primary or sole criterion.

What is DORA and how does it relate to journal impact factor?

DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) is a 2012 initiative signed by thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions calling for an end to using JIF in hiring, promotion, and funding decisions. The argument is that using a journal-level metric to evaluate individual researchers is methodologically unsound. Many institutions in Europe and North America have adopted DORA principles, though JIF remains widely used in evaluation processes globally.

Scope: 9 biomedical fields·Data: Clarivate JCR 2024·Last reviewed: February 2026·Source: Manusights editorial team (researchers with publications in Cell, Nature, Science)·Cite this guide ↓

Journal Impact Factor: What It Means for Submission Decisions

Impact factor comes up in every conversation about where to publish. Advisors mention it. Grant committees look at it. Promotion files include it. But it's also widely misunderstood, especially when it comes to using it to actually choose where to submit.

This guide explains what JIF is, how it's calculated, why comparing it across fields doesn't work, and what to use it for (and what not to).

What Impact Factor Actually Is

Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a single number that Clarivate calculates annually and publishes in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The formula is simple:

JIF (2024) = Citations in 2024 to articles published in 2022–2023
divided by
Number of citable items published in 2022–2023

So if NEJM published 500 research articles in 2022–2023, and those articles were cited 39,250 times during 2024, NEJM's JIF for 2024 would be 39,250 ÷ 500 = 78.5.

That's it. No complexity. The issues (and there are real ones) come from what this metric can't account for, and how it gets misused.

2024 JIF Examples

Lancet88.5

NEJM78.5

JAMA55.0

Nature Medicine50.0

Nature48.5

Science45.8

Cancer Cell44.5

Nature Methods32.1

Neuron15.0

PNAS9.1

PLOS ONE2.6

Source: Clarivate JCR 2024

The Most Common Mistake: Comparing Across Fields

A JIF of 10 means something completely different in neuroscience than it does in clinical medicine. In clinical medicine, a JIF of 10 puts you in the lower tier of general interest journals. In neuroscience, a JIF of 10 puts you in solid mid-tier territory (Brain has an 11.7 JIF and is a very well-regarded journal). In math or humanities, a JIF of 2 can represent the top journals in the field.

This happens because citation rates differ between fields. Clinical researchers cite aggressively: a methods paper or clinical trial in a major journal can accumulate thousands of citations quickly. Neuroscience researchers cite more conservatively, and the reference list for a typical paper is shorter. JIF just reflects those cultural differences in citation behavior. It says nothing absolute about journal quality across field boundaries.

Typical JIF Ranges by Biomedical Field

Use this table to calibrate what "high," "mid," and "accessible" mean within your field, not across fields.

Field	Top Tier JIF	Mid Tier JIF	Accessible JIF	Context
Clinical Medicine	55–88	20–42	2–15	Highest IFs due to high citation rates in clinical practice
Multidisciplinary	45–48	9–16	2–4	Top tier dominated by Nature and Science
Oncology	35–44	15–30	5–20	Strong citation culture in cancer research inflates IFs
Cardiology	35–38	15–22	5–16	AHA/ESC flagships anchor the top tier
Cell Biology	30–42	10–20	2–10	Cell Press journals dominant; IF spread is wide
Genomics & Methods	29–32	12–16	5–13	Methods journals rewarded with high IFs due to citation utility
Immunology	26–27	10–20	3–10	Tight community; comparable to cell biology in citation patterns
Neuroscience	20–45	10–15	3–11	Wide range: basic neuroscience tops at ~20 (Nature Neuroscience); clinical neurology journals reach 45 (Lancet Neurology). Compare within subfield, not across.
GI / Hepatology	25–26	10–16	3–9	Subspecialty journals; compare within field only

Source: Clarivate JCR 2024 data for journals in Manusights database. Tiers are based on journal positioning within each field, not absolute IF values.

What JIF Doesn't Tell You

Whether your specific paper will do well

JIF is the average across all articles. A minority of highly-cited papers drive most of the average at most journals. Your paper's citation count will depend on the quality of the work, not the journal it's in, though visibility does help.

How selective the journal actually is

Nucleic Acids Research has a JIF of 13.1 and an acceptance rate around 45%. JACC has a JIF of 22.3 and accepts around 5% of submissions. JIF and selectivity are correlated, but the relationship isn't tight enough to substitute one for the other.

Scope fit

A JIF of 30 in a journal outside your subfield is worth less than a JIF of 10 in the flagship journal your community actually reads. Where your peers publish and read matters more than the raw JIF number.

Article-level quality

Publishing in a high-JIF journal doesn't make a study better. The research community has known this for a long time: San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) explicitly discourages using JIF to evaluate individual researchers. It's a journal-level metric being applied at the article and researcher level.

Open access reach

Nature Communications (fully OA, IF 15.7) may get your work read by more people than a subscription journal with a higher JIF. OA and JIF address different things. For researchers whose funding agencies require OA, JIF is secondary to compliance.

How fast you'll get a decision

High JIF journals aren't necessarily faster. Scientific Reports (JIF 3.9) takes ~120 days for a first decision. Nature Methods (JIF 32.1) returns desk decisions in about 4 days. Timeline is independent of JIF.

How to Actually Use JIF When Choosing a Journal

Establish your field's range first

Using the table above, find what top-tier, mid-tier, and accessible look like in your specific field. A JIF of 16 might be a reach journal in neuroscience and a comfortable target in cell biology. Get calibrated before you compare journals.

Build a tiered shortlist, not a single target

Most experienced researchers identify three journal tiers before submitting: a reach (top-tier JIF, low acceptance, high upside), a solid match (mid-tier JIF, fits scope and audience), and an accessible option (higher acceptance, lower bar on significance). JIF helps slot journals into those tiers within your field.

Combine it with acceptance rate and timeline

JIF alone is half the picture. A journal with IF 22 and 5% acceptance (JACC) requires a very different manuscript than a journal with IF 22 and 20% acceptance (Blood). See the acceptance rate guide and peer review timeline guide alongside JIF data to build a complete picture.

Don't chase JIF at the expense of fit

Submitting to the highest-JIF journal you can think of, regardless of scope, leads to serial rejection and wasted months. A paper that's a perfect fit for Gut (JIF 25.8) will fare better there than at a general journal with a higher JIF that doesn't focus on gastroenterology. Fit and significance for the specific readership matters more than the absolute number.

The Broader Debate: Should JIF Be Used at All?

The scientific community has serious reservations about how JIF gets used. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) signed by thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions, explicitly calls for not using journal-level metrics as surrogates for the quality of individual research articles in funding, hiring, or promotion decisions.

The practical reality: JIF is still widely used in many countries and institutions for exactly that purpose. Knowing what it is and what it can't tell you lets you engage with it honestly. It's a useful rough signal of journal standing within a field, not a measure of your work's quality.

For individual article quality, citations, altmetrics, and downstream use are more informative than the journal's average. For journal selection as a researcher, scope fit, acceptance rate, and review timeline are at least as important as JIF.

Data Source

All impact factor values cited in this guide are from Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (JCR), 2024 release. JCR is the authoritative source for JIF data and requires a subscription for full access. The specific values cited here are reproduced for reference and educational purposes.

References

Garfield E. The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. JAMA. 2006;295(1):90-93. [doi.org/10.1001/jama.295.1.90 ↗]
Clarivate. (2024). Journal Citation Reports. Clarivate Analytics. [jcr.clarivate.com ↗]
San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). (2012). Retrieved February 2026. [sfdora.org ↗]
Hicks D, Wouters P, Waltman L, de Rijcke S, Rafols I. Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics. Nature. 2015;520(7548):429-431. [doi.org/10.1038/520429a ↗]
Bornmann L, Daniel HD. What do we know about the h index? J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol. 2007;58(9):1381-1385. [doi.org/10.1002/asi.20609 ↗]

Suggested Citation

APA

Manusights. (2026). Journal impact factor: What it means for submission. Retrieved from https://manusights.com/resources/impact-factor-explained

MLA

Manusights. "Journal Impact Factor: What It Means for Submission." Manusights, 2026, manusights.com/resources/impact-factor-explained.

VANCOUVER

Manusights. Journal impact factor: what it means for submission [Internet]. 2026. Available from: https://manusights.com/resources/impact-factor-explained

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