Guides & Tutorials: Journal Impact: CiteScore

What is CiteScore

CiteScore is another metric for measuring journal impact in Scopus. The calculation of CiteScore for the current year is based on the number of citations received by a journal in the latest 4 years (including the calculation year), divided by the number of documents published in the journal in those four years. This is how CiteScore of 2019 is calculated:

Calculation of CiteScore in the Year 2019:

CiteScore in 2019 =	No. of citations received in 2016-2019 to documents published in 2016-2019
	No. of documents published in 2016-2019

Note: Document types include: articles, reviews, conference papers, data papers and book chapters.

CiteScore 2019 were released in Jun 2020 with a new methodology. The new CiteScore counts only peer-reviewed publication types and adopts a 4-year citation window in the numerator (instead of 1 year). Read this article to learn more about the new methodology.

CiteScore metrics are a family of 8 indicators, include: CiteScore, CiteScore Tracker, CiteScore Percentile, CiteScore Quartiles, CiteScore Rank, Citation Count, Document Count and Percentage Cited.

CiteScore Tracker provides a current review of how a journal is performing during the course of the year. It is updated every month.
CiteScore Percentile indicates how a journal ranks relative to other journals in the same subject field. (The fields are defined according to the Scopus field definitions).

► Notes

CiteScore is a metric without field-normalization, thus should not be compared between subject fields (different citation practices across disciplines affect the values of the metric). If you wish to compare journals across subject fields, use SNIP or SJR instead, which are field-normalized metrics.
CiteScore is calculated on an annual basis, showing the average citations for a full calendar year. CiteScore Tracker calculation is updated every month, giving a current indication of a journal's performance.

Read How are CiteScore metrics used in Scopus? for more details.

CiteScore vs. Journal Impact Factor

Major difference between CiteScore and Journal Impact Factor:

CiteScore calculation is based on Scopus data, while Impact Factor is based on Web of Science data.
CiteScore uses a 4-year window while Impact Factor adopts a 2-year window.
CiteScore includes more document types indexed by Scopus, including articles, reviews, conference papers, data papers and book chapters; while Impact Factor only includes "citable documents" which are articles and reviews.

Find CiteScore and Journal Ranking in Scopus

Find CiteScore for a specific journal:

► Step 1. Go to Scopus and click "Sources" at the top of the page.

► Step 2. Under "Title", type in the journal title in the search box and click "Find sources".

► Step 3. You will find the CiteScore of the journal on the page.

You may also click on the journal title to see more details, e.g. how the journal's CiteScore is calculated, the ranking of this journal in relevant subject categories.

Check journal ranking by CiteScore in a specific subject category:

► Step 1. Go to Scopus and click "Sources" at the top of the page.

► Step 2. Under "Subject area", search a subject area, check relevant subject area(s), and click "Apply".

► Step 3. You will then find the journal list ranked by CiteScore.

In this example, we can see the journal ranking by CiteScore in "Education" field. You may further limit results to only those journals listed in certain quartile(s) of their subject area, e.g. 1st quartile (the top 25%).

Compare journals & Save favourite journals for future use:

After you have identified some journals, you may save them in a list for easy comparison. Saved lists can also be very helpful if you need to check the metrics of these journals on a regular basis.

► Step 1. Select the journal(s) you are interested. Then click "Save to source list". Sign in with your personal Scopus account. Create a new account if you haven't done so. Note that you can use your Elsevier credentials to sign in Scopus.

► Step 2. Enter name of a new list, or select an existing list from your saved lists. Then click "Save list".

► Step 3. Click your profile icon from the top menu, then select "Saved lists". Move to "Sources" to find all your saved lists for journals. You may edit the name of the list or delete the list from this page.