Impact Factor

Beware: Misuse of Impact Factor in Academic Evaluations

Many colleges and universities ask researchers for the "What is the Impact Factor of the journal of the journal where their research papers are published.

• Important: There is no "common" impact factor for all journals.
  
  
• The Journal Impact Factor (JIF)is a proprietary metric owned by Clarivate Analytics and applies only to journals listed in the Web of Science Core Collection and the Journal Citation Reports (JCR).

• In the University Grants Commission (UGC) Gazette published in 2018, on page 106, it is explicitly stated that the impact factor will be determined based on the Thomson Reuters list. For verification, please refer to the following link: https://www.ugc.gov.in/pdfnews/4033931_UGC-Regulation_min_Qualification_Jul2018.pdf

Misunderstanding and misuse of JIF leads to:

• Demand for fake or unofficial impact factors.
• Researchers falling prey to predatory journals using fake or misleading metrics.
• Unfair academic evaluations through incorrect API scoring

• For more background, refer to the detailed explanation on Wikipedia:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor

Common Fake or Misleading "Impact Factors" used by Predatory Journals:

• SJIF (Scientific Journal Impact Factor)
  ->A completely non-recognized metric; has no credibility among genuine academic bodies.
• Cosmos Impact Factor
  -> Another fake index with no link to Clarivate Analytics, Scopus, or any credible database.
• Global Impact Factor (GIF)
  -> Claims to provide impact factors but has no standard methodology or academic recognition.
• Universal Impact Factor (UIF)
  -> Pretends to offer scientific evaluations but is not associated with any recognized citation indexing service.
• International Impact Factor Services (IIFS)
  -> Purely commercial, designed to mislead researchers with fake metrics.
• Directory of Impact Factor Journals (DIFJ)
  -> Lists journals with invented impact factors; not associated with any scholarly authority.
• ISI (International Scientific Indexing)
  -> Misleading name that mimics "ISI" (Clarivate’s original name) to confuse researchers.
• Root Indexing
  -> Another marketing trick to give non-indexed journals a fake "rank" or "impact."