Journal Ranking
It is common practice to rank academic journals based on the impact of the articles they publish. Typically, this impact is measured by the number of citations an article receives. The higher the citation count, the more influential the journal is considered to be within its field.
Rankings Required for Submitting a CV with a List of Publications
According to the University of Haifa guidelines, for each publication, you must include the journal’s impact metric based on the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), the quartile for each relevant category, and the journal’s relative ranking out of the total number of journals in that category.
The instruction at the link explains these three required data points and provides guidance on how to obtain them.
In addition, the instruction introduces another important metric: the journal’s percentile ranking within its category. Currently, the Research Authority subsidizes the cost of open-access publishing for articles published in journals ranked in the top decile (top 10%) of at least one of their assigned categories. More details are available on the Research Authority’s website under “Call for Proposals to Encourage Open Access Publishing.“
Additional Databases Providing Journal Ranking Data
There are several other databases that publish journal ranking information. Some are multidisciplinary, while others focus on specific fields of study. The most prominent among them include:
Scimago – The Scimago database is multidisciplinary and provides SJR (Scimago Journal Rank) scores, based on citation data from Scopus (Elsevier).
Link to User Guide (in Heb.) | Link to Database
Databases by Specific Fields of Research
Mathematics – The MCQ (Mathematical Citation Quotient) is widely accepted as the standard ranking in mathematics by many research universities. It is based on data from the MathSciNet database.
Computer Science – Rankings include the Eigenfactor Score from JCR, as well as the CORE rankings, which evaluate both journals and conference proceedings.
Law:
1. Washington & Lee Law Journal Rankings
2. “The Unified Index” – A ranking of academic law journals developed by an inter-institutional committee representing university law faculties in Israel.
Humanities and Social Sciences – To be updated.
Important Note: Beware of Fake Rankings
List of organizations known to produce fake or misleading metrics.
Additional information
A quantitative metric representing the average number of citations received by publications within a specific time frame. It is published in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database. The JIF is based on citation data from the Web of Science database, maintained by Clarivate Analytics (formerly ISI – Thomson Reuters).
This metric allows for comparisons between journals within the same category (discipline), where a higher JIF is generally interpreted as an indication of a more influential journal—one whose published articles have had greater impact, as reflected by a higher number of citations in other academic works.