Example on How to Determine a Journal is indexed by Thomson Reuters-Web of Science (WoS)

Question:

Determine whether the following journal title is indexed by Thomson Reuters-Web of Science (WoS) and find the journal's impact factor (IF) by using JCR Edition 2014 if applicable:

1. Clinics

2. Journal of Applied Sciences

3. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health

4. Women's Health Issue


Answer:

1. Clinics is a WoS indexed with IF 1.185 (Q3 in MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL)

2. Journal of Applied Sciences is not WoS indexed

3. Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health is WoS indexed with IF 1.459 (Q3 in PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH)

4. Womens Health Issue is WoS indexed with IF 2.330 (Q1 in PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH and Q1 in WOMEN'S STUDIES)


Step by Step how to tackle Question No. 4:

1. Try to search the journal's name in Google. TIPS: Try to search by <JOURNAL NAME> + <journal> if the journal's name does not include the word "journal" like "Women's Health Issue". For example, "Women's Health Issue Journal" (Figure 1). No 1 result is not the journal website and maybe an organization. Second result is an journal since the publisher is Elsevier, a reknown publisher.

Figure 1 : Result of searching for "Women's Health Issue Journal" in Google

2. Try to find the journal's ISSN number from the journal's website (Figure 2). I will suggest you to use ISSN when searching for a journal in Master Journal List (MJL) and Journal Citation Report (JCR). ISSN number is like a birth certificate of a journal. It safer to use ISSN number for searching since the name of the journal may be differ from what is indexed by Thomson Reuters in Web of Science (WoS). In this case, ISSN number for Women's Health Issue by Elsevier is 1049-3867 (as in red box in Figure 2).

Figure 2 : ISSN number for "Women's Health Issue" journal

3. Try to find the journal's name in Master Journal List (MJL). Enter the Women's Health Issue journal ISSN no. in the search term box as in Figure 2 (green box). Remember to change the seaech type from "Title Word" to "ISSN" (Figure 2 - red box).

Figure 3 : Searching for a journal in Master Journal List (MJL) by using ISSN no.

The result from MJL is shown in Figure 3. Click on coverage tab as in red box of Figure 4 and you will find that Women's Health Issue journal is covered under Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and current content - Social & Behavioral Science (green box in Figure 3). It confirmed that Women's Health Issue is indexed in Web of Science (WoS). (Criteria for a journal to be indexed in WoS can be found here).

Figure 4 : Women's Health Issue in SSCI, WoS

4. Since Women's Health Issue journal is confirmed to be covered under SSCI, Wos, then we can try to find the journal's IF in JCR. Since Women's Health Issue journal is indexed under SSCI, we should use JCR Social Science Edition 2014 (Figure 5 - red box) and select an option "Search for a specific journal" as in green box of Figure 5. Click Submit.

Figure 5 : JCR searching

Try to insert the Women's Health Issue journal's ISSN no., 1049-3867 in "Type search term" box and remember to change "Search by" box to ISSN (Figure 6). Click Search.

Figure 6 : Searching by using ISSN no.

You will find Journal summary list as shown in Figure 7. Then, click on journal abbreviation name as shown in red box of Figure 7.

Figure 7 : Journal Summary List

Then, click on "JOURNAL RANKING" under Journal Information (red box in Figure 8)

Figure 8 : JOURNAL RANKING tab

You can find that IF for Women's Health Issue journal is 2.330 (as in red box of Figure 9) and its Quartile in Category (green circle of Figure 9)

Figure 9 : Journal Ranking Information

Women's Health Issue journal is WoS indexed with IF 2.330 (Q1 in PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH and Q1 in WOMEN'S STUDIES)

Prepared by,

MOHAMMAD HAFIZ BIN HAMZAH

M. Sc. (Last updated: 01.01.2016)

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