None of these databases or numerical measures based on them are 100% reliable or perfect to me, they are good approximations though. However, I can answer your question compared to the calculations based on WoS with that of some other database. For example, calculations based on Google Scholar database. WoS is based on manual indexing while GS uses crawlers for indexing. This may lead to index non scholarly works too. WoS publishes the indexing sources, but we do not see what are sources for GS. WoS includes sources after evaluating them for appropriateness, but I do not think the same is applied for GS. Thus, WoS could be more reliable compared to GS. Finally, whatever the database we are going to use, we have to trust them, because we have no control over them.
In this year, Clarivate has excluded 33 journals from the JCR because of their anomalous citation behavior. Therefore, I think the JCR is more reliable than other indexing databases.
It's definitely not perfect. It is, however, undoubtedly the most trusted and widely accepted source at the current time. That's unlikely to change anytime soon. Hence, JCR Impact Factors will play a role on publishing decisions for the foreseeable future.
Hamed Bazaz | Founder, Managing Director | www.journaledit.com
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