Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 journals can be presented differently for example the journal, which are Q1 in the Scimago Journal Rank are not Q1 in the Thomson Reuters. However, from the Thomson Reuters, I have shared a link that can clarify you about the issue. Moreover, you can also see the picture that have attached for you from the link to understand Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 journals.
Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 journals can be presented differently for example the journal, which are Q1 in the Scimago Journal Rank are not Q1 in the Thomson Reuters. However, from the Thomson Reuters, I have shared a link that can clarify you about the issue. Moreover, you can also see the picture that have attached for you from the link to understand Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 journals.
I think no classification for all scientific research field. I mean, I need to consider only my research field. or I should consider a certain journal and check if it is listed as Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4 .
The clasification is based on reports issued and published by Thomson Rhouters. Additionally, the classification fits well with all research fields, so excellent journals in Engineering and Medical fields will be included in Q1 however, Engineering jounral may be of impact factor 4.5 and that in medical field may be of impact factor 65.
To find the ranking as per the Clarivate Analytics, one can go to the following link and search for the title of journal, click search button, and then click to the journal name (in highlighted color) to pop-up the window which provides latest ranking.
Quartile (Q) rankings are derived for each journal in each of its subject categories according to which Q of the IF distribution the journal occupies for that subject category.
Q1 denotes the top 25% of the IF distribution, Q2 for the middle-high position (between top 50% and top 25%), Q3 middle-low position (top 75% to top 50%), and Q4 the lowest position (bottom 25% of the IF distribution).
The most credible classification is provided by Thompson-Reuters (now known as: Clarivate Analytics ). This is also known as JCR. It is more strict than Scimago.
I have shown in this video how you can search for Q1 journal in specific fields:
In conclusion, you can see: the following ranking table for (Engineering)
Based on Impact Factor (IF) data, the Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters (see also here) provides yearly rankings of science and social science journals, in the subject categories relevant for the journal (in fact, there may be more than one).
Quartile rankings are therefore derived for each journal in each of its subject categories according to which quartile of the IF distribution the journal occupies for that subject category. Q1 denotes the top 25% of the IF distribution, Q2 for middle-high position (between top 50% and top 25%), Q3 middle-low position (top 75% to top 50%), and Q4 the lowest position (bottom 25% of the IF distribution)
I'd recommend finding out where the top research groups publish, find these venues, and recursively find again who publishes at them, etc. In short, I won't recommend just following some quantitative bibliometrics figures...
While Q(1-4) is the quartile ranking of the journal with Q1 being the highest quartile of 25% best list; editorial spread (region or countries, institutional or industrial spread of editors) and association or institutional base of the journal are determinant factor for a journal quartile ranking. So you could do this background check on the journal yourself because journals are just too many!
Web of Science (ISI-Thomson Reuters) utilized the concept of Impact Factor which is measured by citations within it's JCR database. While scimago is an alternative measure based on a different citation universe provided by Scopus database. It should be pointed out that scimago uses a weighted citation score meaning that citations from a prestigious journal are scored more highly than those from a title that has a smaller citation network. The Impact Factor on the other hand uses absolute counts. Universities all over the world may put different stock in each of these metrics but the two are largely incomparable. They measure two distinctly different things. Recently, we run the danger of entering into a marketing game where institutions pick the metrics in which their research scores most highly. Something to ponder.
Quartile rankings are therefore derived for each journal in each of its subject categories according to which quartile of the IF distribution the journal occupies for that subject category. Q1 denotes the top 25% of the IF distribution, Q2 for middle-high position (between top 50% and top 25%), Q3 middle-low position (top 75% to top 50%), and Q4 the lowest position (bottom 25% of the IF distribution).
Q1 denotes the top 25% of the IF distribution, Q2 for middle-high position (between top 50% and top 25%), Q3 middle-low position (top 75% to top 50%), and Q4 the lowest position (bottom 25% of the IF distribution). For example, the 2009 Impact Factor for the ACM TRANSACTIONS ON SENSOR NETWORKS is 1.938. Thus, the journal ranks 32-nd (out of 116 journals, Q2 quartile) in the subject category COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS, while it ranks 11-th (out of 76 journals, Q1 quartile) in the subject category TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
1) Please, Go to " https://www.webofknowledge.com/ "
in the searching box, type the journal name and select "Publication Name" filter. then after searching, click on journal name and see details information about Q and IF of a journal( attached fig).
2) Go to https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=
after typing of a journal name and search of its name, you can see details about Q and SJR in the down of the displayed page.
Q1 denotes the top 25% of the IF distribution, Q2 for middle-high position (between top 50% and top 25%), Q3 middle-low position (top 75% to top 50%), and Q4 the lowest position (bottom 25% of the IF distribution). For example, the 2009 Impact Factor for the ACM TRANSACTIONS ON SENSOR NETWORKS is 1.938. Thus, the journal ranks 32-nd (out of 116 journals, Q2 quartile) in the subject category COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS, while it ranks 11-th (out of 76 journals, Q1 quartile) in the subject
Q1 denotes the top 25% of the IF distribution, Q2 for middle-high position (between top 50% and top 25%), Q3 middle-low position (top 75% to top 50%), and Q4 the lowest position (bottom 25% of the IF distribution).
I would totally agree with the above assessments that Scopus related metrics are becoming very important and more relevant than ISI impact factor ratings. This is in large part due to the of university ranking systems which now rely heavily on scopus metrics.
In fact, for my short time stay in Research Gate (RG) and observations made; Some researchers (over 50%) feel all members here are at par with levels of reasoning, exposure and academic achievements. And based on that assumption, some respondents to questions put up here give out answers without an allowance for the novis and inexperienced whose presence here (RG) is to learn from the PhDs, Professors and Associate Professors (ASSOC Profs). They should kindly tone down
Another important information on each journal can be obtained from this famous website:
https://www.scopus.com/
Here you can find the percentile for the journal compared with the other journals in the same field of study. For example, a journal has ranking 154/204 in some field, means its percentile is 24th. In other words, this journal is better than 24% of other journals in the same field.
Usually is used for ranking the journal .For example in case of Scopus journals Q1 is on the top of ranking followed by Q2 , Q3,and then the least in ranking is Q4 .