Introduction

The impact factor or journal impact factor of an academic journal is a scient metric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly average number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as indexed by Clarivate’s Web of Science.

A journal impact factor may be a measure of the frequency with which the typical article during a journal has been cited during a particular year.

Impact factors could also be used by:

• Authors to make a decision where to submit a piece of writing for publication.
• Libraries to form collection development decisions
• Academic departments to assess academic productivity
• Academic departments to form decisions on promotion and tenure.