Impact Factor
A journal-level metric giving the average number of recent citations received per article published in that journal.
The impact factor is a journal-level metric calculated as the average number of citations received in one year by articles the journal published in the preceding two years. It was designed to help libraries compare journals, and it varies enormously across fields, so a respectable value in one discipline would look low in another. Crucially, it describes a journal's average, not the quality of any individual article published there.
For a thesis writer, the impact factor is a rough signal, not a verdict. It can help you identify prominent journals in your field when scoping the literature or choosing where to submit your own work, but do not treat publication venue as proof that a specific study is sound. Examiners evaluate whether you appraised individual sources critically, and important, rigorous work also appears in lower-ranked journals.
Related terms
Writing the thesis this term belongs to?
CiteDash takes a thesis from research question to a compiled document, with AI that cites only real papers and verifies every claim against its source.