The impact factor
Example: Impact factor measures influence of academic journals based on citations
Definition
"The impact factor" is a metric used to measure the influence and importance of academic journals by calculating the average number of citations received per paper published in that journal during a specific period, reflecting its relevance in the research community.
Etymology
The term "the impact factor" originated in the 1960s when Eugene Garfield developed it to quantify the significance of scientific journals. The word 'impact' relates to effect or influence, while 'factor' denotes a contributing element, combining to describe a measure of a journal's citation impact.
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"The impact factor" appears in the Vocaplus list "English - Research - (A1-C2) - set 1", containing 108 commonly used words.
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