Again, searching for information can result in an overwhelming amount of book- or article titles. On the other hand, not every title is as equally relevant or of the same quality. How can you determine which literature has higher status than others?
A couple of factors determine the quality of journals
- Consider the source: is it peer reviewed? In other words, has it been critically assessed by colleagues from your field? If not, your source probably does not meet the highest scientific standard.
- Number of citations. Articles cited more frequently than others are often considered more important. The least thing you could say is that they had a thorough influence on the scientific debate.
- Academic journals are graded with so-called impact factors. Impact Factors are used to measure the importance of a journal by calculating the number of times selected articles are cited within the last few years. The higher the impact factor, the more highly ranked the journal. It is one tool you can use to compare journals in a subject category.
- More about impact factors: check this page.
Solid sources preferably have high impact factors. However, when determining the quality of an article keep in mind that:
- The scientific worth of an individual article has nothing to do with the impact factor of a journal.
- A subject that’s very dynamic, or has many researchers, produces more literature than other subjects, and therefore is cited more often. This does not mean that less cited works are less important.
- At all times, keep in mind that impact factors are an indication of quality, not of absolute worth.
University Library