Bibliometrics – a set of statistical and mathematical methods used to analyse scientific literature. A useful tool for parametric assessment of researchers and research institutions.
Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus – two key bibliographic, abstract, and citation databases used in bibliometric analyses (databases made available to universities, institutes, and research libraries since 2010 under a national academic license coordinated by the ICM).
WEB OF SCIENCE CORE COLLECTION (Web of Science platform) – a database by Clarivate Analytics. It comprises a carefully curated collection of high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific journals published worldwide across more than 250 categories, as well as an extensive collection of citation indexes. Go to Web of Science
A list of journal titles currently indexed in all Clarivate Analytics databases (including the Web of Science Core Collection). Here, you can check whether a journal is still indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. Go to MJL
An annual report on scientific journals based on the Web of Science Core Collection. It serves as a fundamental and comprehensive tool for evaluating the quality of journals using a range of citation-based metrics, most notably the Impact Factor. Go to JCR
New editions are released annually in June, presenting indicator values, including the Impact Factor, for the previous year (e.g. the 2025 JCR edition contains indicators for 2024). In the autumn, the database undergoes a full update (JCR annual data reload), incorporating revised data and changes to category metrics.
The JCR categorizes journals into four editions: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).
A tool for conducting multifaceted bibliometric analyses of the scientific output of individual researchers and entire institutions, based on data indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection and Journal Citation Reports. It enables users to compare the research output of scholars and institutions, analyse research trends, and develop research strategies.
An analytical tool that helps you identify top-performing research in Web of Science Core Collection.
SCOPUS – a comprehensive, multidisciplinary abstract and citation database developed by Elsevier. Go to Scopus
A tool for analyzing data from the Scopus database. It enables users to visualise the achievements of research institutions, compare them with other entities, evaluate potential collaborators and partners, and to analyse trends in the scientific world.
Publicly available portal that ranks scientific journals and countries based on citation data from the Scopus database. It evaluates the scientific prestige and scientific influence of journals and country research output. Go to SCImago
It shows how often a given scientific publication is cited in other scientific publications indexed in selected databases (WoS, Scopus, Google Scholar). It applies to both individual publications and the overall body of work of a researcher or institution.
It measures a researcher’s ability to publish frequently cited works. A researcher has an h-index if they have at least h publications for which they received at least h citations.
For example, an h-index of 15 means that a researcher has 15 publications that have been cited at least 15 times.
An impact indicator for scientific journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection database. It measures a journal’s influence based on the citation rates of the articles published in it.
Defined as citations to the journal in the current JCR year to all items (publications) published in the previous two years, divided by the total number of scholarly items (articles, reviews) published in the journal in the previous two years.
For example:
IF values are calculated annually for the previous year and published in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database. Go to JCR
Journal impact indicator. This represents the average number of citations per article published in a given journal over the past five years.
It is calculated in the same way as the IF, based on citations and the number of publications that appeared in a given journal over the previous five years.
The middle IF value for the categories according to which journals are classified in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database.
A journal’s quartile ranking, determined by comparing the journal with others in its JCR category based on its Impact Factor.
The highest-ranked journals in a given category are in the Q1 quartile, and the lowest-ranked are in Q4. If a journal is in Q1, it means that the journal outperforms at least 75% of the journals in that category, based on its Impact Factor.
A journal’s ranking in a JCR category, determined by its Impact Factor, expressed as a percentile. The higher the value, the greater the journal’s influence in its subject area (e.g., a journal with a score of 99 ranks higher than 99% of other journals in that specific category). Percentiles provide a more detailed picture than quartiles.
An impact indicator for scientific journals indexed in the Scopus database. It measures the average number of citations per document published in the journal.
The CiteScore value is calculated by dividing the number of citations received over a four-year period (including the year for which it is calculated) by documents (articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters, and data papers) published by the journal during that same period by the total number of such documents.
For example:
The CiteScore is calculated once at the end of a given year and is usually published in the middle of the following year on the journal’s profile in the Scopus database.
The Polish scoring system established by the Minister responsible for science is designed for the purpose of evaluating the quality of scientific activity and assessing scientific publications; it is published in the Minister’s announcements in the form of lists of scientific journals and peer-reviewed materials from international conferences, as well as lists of publishers.
WEB OF SCIENCE CORE COLLECTION
The Journal Citation Indicator (JCI) is based on the mean category normalized citation impact (CNCI) for the journal. CNCIs are calculated at the document level and are based on citations from all documents in the three previous years and the JCR Year to articles and reviews published in the previous three years. The JCI is normalized for document type, publication year, and category.
It compares the number of citations for a given publication with other publications of the same type, published in the same year and in the same field of research.
CNCI of a document is calculated by dividing the actual count of citing items by the expected citation rate for documents with the same document type, year of publication and subject area.
SCOPUS
An indicator that enables the comparison of journals across different subject categories. It measures actual citations received relative to citations expected for the journal’s subject field.
SNIP is calculated as the average number of citations in a given year for documents published in the journal over the previous three years, normalized against the citation potential of the subject category represented by the journal.
The journal rank indicator measures the weighted number of citations received by a journal. The weight of a citation depends on subject field and prestige (SJR) of the citing journal.
SJR indicator is calculated as the average number of weighted citations received in a given year by documents published in that journal over the previous three years.
A normalized metric used in SciVal. FWCI is the ratio of the citations actually received by an output to the citations expected for similar outputs, based on subject field, document type and publication year.
ALTERNATIVE METRICS (ALTMETRICS) – indicators enabling the online measurement of the social impact of scientific publications.
Altmetric tools utilize the public APIs of various platforms and, through open scripts and algorithms, track traces and collect data left by users online, such as tweets, likes, recommendations, comments, blog posts, etc. Based on this data, new indicators are generated; these are derived, for example, from measuring the number of downloads or views, “favorites,” social media comments and recommendations, as well as references and mentions in other non-traditional online sources, such as science blogs.