Finding Key Journals in an Area using Journal Citation Reports

USING JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS TO FIND THE JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR

A journal’s impact factor is a “measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period."

You can use Journal Citation Reports from within Web of Science or in its own section from the top menu bar in Web of Science.

Link to Journal Citation Reports in top menu bar of Web of Science

In Journal Citation Reports you can look at individual journal titles' impact factors (YouTube video) or you can choose a subject Category and year.

Select Category in JCR

Click on the number of journals in the category to seee a full list ranked by impact factor (or other measures).

Choose # Journals in JCR to see list

JCR results

Finding Key Journals on a Topic using the Analyze Results Feature

ANALYZE RESULTS in Web of Science Core Collection (NOT All Databases)

The Analyze Results link can help you figure out which authors, journals, and institutions are publishing a lot on a subject, and which places are funding recent research, amongst other things.

Web of Science Analyze Results button at bottom of Refine Results bar Web of Science Analyze Results button by Sort dropdown

Once you have done a search in the Web of Science Core Collection, choose the Analyze Results Link beneath the Refine Results sidebar or the sorting dropdown.

Choose the criteria to analyze by, e.g. Source Title (Journal Title) and click Analyze to see results 

WoS Analyze by Source Title

WoS Source Title analysis results

Choose the criteria you want and click View Records to see the references. You’ll often see patterns in the data (e.g. researchers from the same labs, common institutions, etc).