Best method to identify the relative ranks of journals

Please see our journal suggestion tools guide linked below to find an online journal's impact/ranking relative to other journals in the same field.

Included in the list are several tools by Web of Science and Scopus - these are citation and abstracting index databases (no full text articles) which are the primary sources for determining impact metrics. Both Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) have 2 ways to access publication and impact data - one is through their journal finder tools and the other is through their standard interfaces.

Scopus (access via eResource A-Z linked below)

1. Use the JournalFinder tool (link below; available via a browser search). 

2. In the standard Scopus interface, use the Sources tab. Search Title to see publication and citation data for a journal, then to compare sources, in the Source details banner, click the Compare sources blue link (see right hand side).

Web of Science (access via eResource A-Z linked below)

1. Use the Master Journal List tool (link below; available through browser search or via WoS Products) which includes Search Journals and Match Manuscript. The former is a better tool for the purpose of this FAQ query. Students will need to create a free account/sign in before they can see full results. Search the title to see a full page of information including links to similar journals, impact metrics, and where to find full text. [Consider using the Categories shown in the Web of Science Coverage box on this page for Journal Citation Reports comparisons - see below.]*

2. The standard WoS search interface allows you to search for a publication title. When the results come up, click on the journal title and a pop up will appear on the side with a couple of journal impact metrics.

Neither of the the above tools link directly to comparison metrics. To do so, you would need to go to Journal Citation Reports (under Products).

To get a list of similar titles for comparison*, use a category term shown in the Web of Science Coverage box in the Master Journal List, and search the JCR Categories tab for that category. See further instructions in Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports User Guide on page 44. The Compare button appears at the bottom of the page once one or more journal titles have been ticked.