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Understand journal and article metrics before you submit
When deciding where to submit your manuscript to ICR Publications, it is important to consider a broad range of journal-level and article-level metrics. These help you estimate the potential reach, recognition, and impact of your research, for both the journal as a whole and your individual contribution.
What Are Journal Metrics (and Why They Matter)
Journal-level metrics evaluate the collective performance of all content published in a journal. They do not reflect the impact of a single author’s paper, but rather illustrate how influential, widely read, and properly managed a journal is, including its editorial standards, peer-review process, and ethical practices.
Selecting a journal with robust metrics enhances your work's chances of visibility, citations, and long-term impact.
What Are Article Metrics
Article-level metrics provide insight into how your individual paper performs — beyond just citations. These can include social visibility (media mentions, blogs, social media), downloads, views, and re-use. Article metrics help you understand the broader educational, societal, and research value of your work, not just academic citations.
📈 Common Metrics Displayed by ICR Publications Journals
| Metric Name | What It Measures |
|---|---|
| Journal Impact Factor | Average number of citations in a given year to items published in the previous two years. |
| 5-Year Journal Impact Factor | Average citations to items published in the previous five years. |
| Journal Citation Indicator | Field-normalized citation measure that enables comparison across different disciplines. |
| CiteScore | Average citations per document over a 4-year window. |
| SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper) | Contextualized citation impact, adjusted for citation potential in the subject field. |
| Smart Citation Badge (e.g. Scite) | Provides context for how a paper is cited (supporting, contrasting, etc.). |
| Altmetric Badge | Measures social visibility: mentions in news, blogs, social media, policy documents, etc. |
| Submission to First Decision | Median time (in days) from submission to first editorial decision (including desk rejections). |
| Submission to Acceptance | Median time (in days) from submission to final acceptance decision. |
| Acceptance Rate | Percentage of submitted papers accepted (after peer review or desk-reject). |
| Acceptance to Publication | Median time (in days) from acceptance to final publication. |
| Full Text Views | Number of unique full-text access events (HTML, PDF, author manuscript) in a year. |
| Total Articles Published | Number of Version-of-Record articles published in a given year. |
| Top Author Countries/Regions | The top countries or regions of corresponding authors in a given year. |
| Top Reader Countries/Regions | The top countries or regions of the readers (by number of full-text accesses) in a given year. |
Note: Not every journal will display all metrics. Some metrics (like Impact Factor or CiteScore) require indexing (e.g. by Clarivate / Web of Science or Scopus); newer or non-indexed journals may omit them.
How You Should Use These Metrics When Choosing a Journal
Use multiple metrics together, not just one. Relying solely on a single metric can be misleading.
Consider qualitative aspects too: aims and scope of the journal, relevance to your field, peer-review model, readership demographics.
Review the turnaround times (submission → decision; acceptance → publication) to estimate how quickly your work could be published.
For article-level reach, check metrics like full-text views, downloads, and Altmetric badges — especially important if you aim for broader societal or interdisciplinary impact.
For long-term visibility and academic influence, citation-based metrics (Impact Factor, CiteScore, SNIP) remain relevant — but interpret them cautiously, considering differences across disciplines.
ICR Publications’ Commitment to Responsible Research Assessment
As part of our commitment to transparent and responsible evaluation of scholarly output, ICR Publications endorses DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) principles. We believe that no single metric should determine the value of research. Instead, we encourage authors, evaluators, and reviewers to consider a diverse set of metrics — combining citation data, usage statistics, social visibility, and qualitative factors — to assess the impact and quality of research more holistically.
What to Check on Journal Pages
- When exploring a journal under ICR Publications, be sure to look for the following information:
- The available citation-based metrics (Impact Factor, CiteScore, SNIP, etc.)
- Editorial and publication speed metrics (e.g., submission to first decision, acceptance rate, publication time)
- Usage metrics (full-text views/downloads)
- Geographic distribution of authors and readers (to check global reach)
- Article-level visibility indicators (e.g. Altmetric, Smart Citations)