"What's this journal's Impact Factor?" is the most-asked question in academia — but another is increasingly heard alongside it: "And its CiteScore?" Both measure how many citations a journal gets on average, but they come from different databases and are calculated differently. Let's clarify what each is and how to use them when choosing a journal.
What both measure (and what they don't)
Both the Impact Factor and CiteScore show how many citations per article a journal received over a given period. Note: neither measures the quality of your article — there are lightly-cited papers in high-IF journals and heavily-cited papers in low-IF ones. The metric is a rough indicator of a journal's visibility, not of an article's worth.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Impact Factor (JIF) | CiteScore |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Web of Science — Clarivate | Scopus — Elsevier |
| Citation window | 2 years (a 5-year variant also exists) | 4 years |
| Coverage | More selective (WoS Core) | Broader (Scopus) |
| Published in | Journal Citation Reports (JCR) | Scopus / Scopus.com |
| Quartile | JCR Q1–Q4 | CiteScore Q1–Q4 |
It's normal for the same journal to have different IF and CiteScore values — different database + different window = different result.
Which should you look at?
The answer depends on context:
- Which one does your institution/incentive count? Some criteria require Web of Science (IF/quartile); others accept Scopus (CiteScore). Find this out first.
- Which database is the journal in? A journal only in Scopus may have no IF; one only in WoS may have no CiteScore. (See the separate post on index differences.)
- Mind your discipline: Compare metrics only within the same field. Medicine and mathematics journals have inherently different citation levels; look at the quartile within the field, not the raw number.
Using them correctly
The metric is the last step in journal selection, not the first. The order should be: scope fit first, then the journal's trustworthiness (not predatory), then index/quartile, and finally fine-tuning with the metric. Keep this order when choosing the right journal.
Looking up the IF, CiteScore and quartile of dozens of journals one by one takes time. Peerfect's free journal recommendation engine puts journals that fit your scope in front of you with their metric and quartile information — so you weigh the right metric in the right context, at a glance.