Impact factor, abbreviated as IF, is a data in the periodical citation report produced by Thomson Reuters. That is, the total number of cited papers published by a journal in the first two years of the reporting year (JCR year) divided by the total number of papers published by the journal in these two years. This is an internationally accepted periodical evaluation index.
The impact factor has become a general index of periodical evaluation in the world. It is not only an index to measure the usefulness and exhibition of periodicals, but also an important index to measure the academic level of periodicals and even the quality of papers. The influence factor is a relative statistic.
In the process of development, the influencing factors have formed two indicators: composite influencing factors and comprehensive influencing factors. The composite impact factor refers to the composite impact factor calculated based on the comprehensive statistical source documents of journals, doctoral and master's dissertations and conference papers.
Comprehensive influencing factors refer to comprehensive influencing factors, mainly referring to the integration of arts and sciences. Based on the comprehensive statistical source literature of sci-tech journals and humanities and social sciences journals, the calculation is carried out. Both of them are based on the ratio of the total cited times published in the first two years of the evaluated journals to the total cited times published in the first two years of the journals in the statistical year.
Definition of influencing factors:
Impact factors are not the most objective criteria for evaluating the influence of periodicals. Generally speaking, the higher the impact factor, the greater the influence of the journal. For some comprehensive or important research fields, the citation rate is relatively high because of the wide range of research fields. For example, biological and chemical journals are generally more likely to have higher influence.
Although the impact factor can represent the academic quality to some extent, there is no linear proportional relationship between the impact factor and the academic quality. For example, it cannot be said that a journal with an impact factor of 5.0 is necessarily better than a journal with an impact factor of 2.0, and the impact factor does not have the function of accurately and quantitatively evaluating academic quality.
Some domestic scientific research institutions often use the number of cumulative impact factors or single impact factors as quantitative standards when evaluating scientific research performance. Some researchers may not be promoted or rewarded because of the difference of influence factors of 0. 1, which is absolutely undesirable.