Guides & Tutorials: Journal Impact: SJR and SNIP

What are SJR and SNIP

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank):

ranks publications by weighted citations per document.
is a prestige metric based on the idea that not all citations are the same. Citations are weighted more or weighted less – depending on the source they come from.
with SJR, subject field, quality and reputation of the journal have a direct effect on the value of a citation.
with SJR, self-citations are limited to the maximum of 33%.

SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper):

measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field. The impact of a single citation is given higher value in subject areas where citations are less likely, and vice versa. For example, journals in Mathematics, Engineering and Social Sciences tend to have higher values than titles in Life Sciences.
allows direct comparison of sources in different subject fields.
with SNIP, the differences of journals’ SNIP are due to the quality of the journals but not the different citation behavior between subject fields.

Note: Both SJR and SNIP are available in Scopus. However, SJR can also be accessed via Scimago Journal & Country Rank page (free source).

Use SJR ...	Use SNIP ...
to enhance position of post-prestigious journals (SJR emphasizes the differences) if focusing on Life and Health Sciences if topicality is important in journal performance if you want to weight citations based on the status of the citing journal	if value is less important than rank (SNIP reduces the differences) if focusing on Engineering, Computer Science, and Social Sciences if you are focused on subject field normalization if you think that impact and topicality are separate and should be considered independently

Find SJR, SNIP and Journal Ranking in Scopus

Find SJR or SNIP 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. Click on the journal title to find the SNIP and SJR of the journal.

From the result list, you may also expand the header to find SNIP and SJR of the journal.

Check journal ranking by SNIP or SJR 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. Expand the result list to find SNIP and SJR of the journal list. Click "SJR" or "SNIP" header to rank journals by SJR or SNIP. By default, the journals are ranked by CiteScore, another metric available in Scopus. Learn more about CiteScore here.

In this example, we can see the journal ranking by SJR 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.