Which impact factor should be mentioned for a particular journal? The one the journal had at the time of publication? Or the current IF?
For instance, if you published a paper in 2014 at, say, PLoS One, IF was 3.234. So, in effect, at the time of publication, your paper showed up on a journal with that IF. However, in 2017-18, PLoS One's IF went down to 2.766. So, should one consider de new IF, even if the paper was published 4 years ago?
Also, what if a journal ceased to exist? Should one consider the IF at the time of publication or the IF attained for the last year of publication of the journal?
Hi Bruno,
It depends where you are using the citation. If it is for personal 'promotion' then I, personally, think that it is fair to use either. Of course journal Impact Factors can fall as well as rise - so one would then be advised to use whatever is the higher IF year. If you are inputting into established databases i.e. ORCID then they usually 'automatically' record the IF for the year of publication. My position is the same for other types of increasingly used metrics i.e. quartile/quality Q-rankings. Some databases i.e. Scopus/Scimago combine both metrics.
Journal impact factor is a measure of the reputation of the journal. Therefore, it would be better to use the latest JIF.
Hi,
The current IF is the most important. As you know, the IF tends to fluctuate, so, for the sake of more stability, one should use the 5-year-window IF.
For assessment of research productivity of academic people, it makes sense to refer to the IF of the year in which a paper has been published. This is a common practice in Iranian universities for measuring academic achievements. It is identical for referring to black list journals.
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