ABSTRACT
The impact factor of a journal is becoming more important in authors considering where to publish their work, and it is important that as a reader of research you appreciate what an impact factor is. The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the ‘average article’ in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period. The impact factor therefore clarifies the significance of total citation frequencies. The higher the impact factor for a journal, the more articles in that journal are likely to be cited than from another journal with a lower impact factor.
