Answered By: Robert Sebek Last Updated: Aug 08, 2017 Views: 128
An impact factor is a measure of the frequency that the "average article" published in a scholarly journal has been cited in a two or five year period. It is often used to measure or describe the importance of a particular journal in an academic discipline. Authors can use impact factors to evaluate journals to decide which to publish in. Impact factors were initially developed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).
The primary tool for locating impact factors is the Web of Science database Journal Citation Reports.