Why Do I Care?
Situation: You've found a research article - it's looking like a good one!!!! Just what you have been looking for!!! So how do you tell if it's a high quality paper? Yes, you need to critically evaluate the research design... method... data analysis strategy (as I am sure you have been taught at uni), BUT another (additional) way to check whether an article is good quality is to check the quality of the journal it is from.
For me, it just gives me a little bit more confidence that I have found a high quality paper.... Winner!
Why? Because generally speaking, high quality research is published in higher quality journals.
So how do you tell if an article is from a high quality journal?
Journals are ranked using different ranking systems. However, one quick (and some might say a bit dirty) way to check how decent the journal is, is by checking out its impact factor.
What is an Impact Factor?
The impact factor measures the importance or rank of a journal by calculating the times its articles are cited. It is a measure of average number of times articles from a two-year time frame have been cited in a given year.
Very generally speaking... the more significant an article is, the more times other researchers will reference (cite) it. The more highly cited articles a journal has - the higher its impact factor. The higher the impact factor - the harder it is to publish in that journal - so the more high quality research that is published in that journal.
How do I check the Impact Factor?
To check a journal impact factor, you can just Google the journal name and "impact factor". Most journals include the impact factor on the home page.
How do I interpret an Impact Factor?
For a rough rule of thumb, an impact factor of:
≥ 10 = excellent (the highest ranked journal in psychology, the Annual Review of Psychology, has an impact factor of 18.16).
3 = good
< 1 = average...
Basically, if a research article is published in a journal with an impact factor > 1, you can be confident it is decent. The impact factor is also helpful to compare journals within the same subject category.
Disclaimer: Impact factors are useful, but they should not be the only consideration when judging the quality of articles. Sometimes high quality research ends up in journals with low impact factors. Why? Not because its quality is subpar BUT because it doesn't fit within the aim and scope of a higher ranked journal. In addition, new journals must wait until they have a record of citations before even being considered for getting an impact factor. So yes, the scientific worth of an individual article may have nothing to do with the impact factor of a journal (and sometimes, if your topic is niche, you need to cite research no matter where it is from... because its the best you've got).
But, for curious minds like mine, checking the journal impact factor can sometimes provide a bit of an extra boost when you are appraising an article and think, “ok... this is looking good.... I can't see any flaws... what's the quality of the journal... over 3! YES!!!!" 🤓
Happy Researching!
***If you want more strategies and tips for conducing a literature review, you can enrol in my on-demand workshop, Learn How to Write a Kick Ass Thesis: Part 1 - Setting Yourself up For Success in Your Literature Review and Introduction***
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