Web of Science, Impact Factor & Quartiles Explained

“Is it Web of Science indexed?” is among the first things a supervisor, a promotion committee or a funder asks about a journal. The reply helps only if you understand what Web of Science is, which of its indexes is meant, and how to verify the claim yourself in a few minutes. This guide deals with all three plainly, and also says where JMVRA stands.

What Web of Science Is

Web of Science is a citation database that belongs to Clarivate. Across a chosen group of journals, books and conference proceedings, it records which articles cite which, and it supplies the best-known journal metric, the Journal Impact Factor.

Web of Science is a platform with several databases inside it. People who say a journal is “indexed in Web of Science” nearly always refer to the Web of Science Core Collection, the curated, selective portion that Journal Citation Reports draws on.

The Core Collection, One Index at a Time

The Core Collection consists of separate indexes. A believable claim names the index, as each one covers a different field and holds a different status:

Index	Full name	Covers
SCIE	Science Citation Index Expanded	Natural sciences, engineering, medicine and technology journals
SSCI	Social Sciences Citation Index	Social science journals
AHCI	Arts & Humanities Citation Index	Arts and humanities journals
ESCI	Emerging Sources Citation Index	Journals that meet the quality criteria, across all fields
BKCI	Book Citation Index	Scholarly books
CPCI	Conference Proceedings Citation Index	Conference proceedings

What “Indexed in Web of Science” Truly Means

A journal counts as indexed once Clarivate has assessed it and admitted it to one of the Core Collection indexes. Its articles go in with their references, which means citations to and from them are tallied. It does not imply that each paper in the journal is excellent, and it does not last forever: Clarivate re-evaluates journals and removes titles that no longer satisfy its criteria.

How Journals Get Selected

Clarivate’s editors judge journals against a published set of criteria: 24 quality criteria (covering matters such as peer review, editorial board, ethics, content relevance and timeliness) and 4 impact criteria drawn from citation activity. Meeting the quality criteria can bring a journal into ESCI; entry to SCIE, SSCI or AHCI also requires meeting the impact criteria.

1. ApplicationThe publisher puts the journal forward for evaluation.
2. Quality criteriaEditors examine peer review, ethics, board, content and regularity.
3. Impact criteriaCitation activity determines SCIE, SSCI or AHCI entry.

Journal Citation Reports and the Impact Factor

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is the yearly release of journal metrics from Clarivate. Its best-known figure is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF):

From the 2023 release onward, JCR assigns a JIF to every Core Collection journal, those in AHCI and ESCI included. JCR also issues the Journal Citation Indicator, a field-normalised figure that eases comparison between journals in different subjects. Clarivate alone publishes a Journal Impact Factor; any other “impact factor” comes from a different calculation and ought to state whose data it draws on.

Quartiles Q1–Q4

Within each subject category, JCR ranks the journals by JIF and splits them into four equal groups: Q1 covers the top 25% and Q4 the bottom 25%. Journals placed in several categories can land in a different quartile for each, which is why a quartile must always be tied to a named category and year.

Verifying a Web of Science Claim

It takes roughly two minutes and answers the question for any journal:

1. Open the Master Journal ListVisit mjl.clarivate.com on your own — do not use a link from the journal.
2. Search by ISSNTitles get copied; the ISSN is the dependable key.
3. Read the coverageLook at which index is named (SCIE, SSCI, AHCI or ESCI) and who the publisher is.
4. Match the websiteThe record's publisher and URL ought to agree with the site you are visiting.
5. Check the JCR yearAny quoted quartile or JIF should come with its year and category.
6. Record the dateCoverage shifts over time; save a screenshot showing the date for your records.

Comparing Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar

	Web of Science	Scopus	Google Scholar
Owner	Clarivate	Elsevier	Google
Coverage	Selective, evaluated journals	Selective, evaluated titles	Broad, automatic crawling
Journal metric	Journal Impact Factor and quartile ranks	CiteScore (along with SJR and SNIP)	h5-index; author profiles report the h-index
Where to verify	Master Journal List	Scopus Sources list	Search by title or open the profile page
Access	Paid subscription (searching the MJL costs nothing)	Paid subscription (the Sources list is free to use)	Free

Further reading: an explanation of Scopus · how to get indexed in Google Scholar · Journal Indexing in Plain Language.

Warning Signs in Web of Science Claims

Where JMVRA Stands

JMVRA is not indexed in Web of Science, and it says so plainly. The 11.25 impact factor is a calculated metric based on citations from Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar; it is not an official Clarivate Journal Impact Factor (JCR), and JMVRA never presents it as one. Citation counts and the h-index are shown on JMVRA's pages only once verified.

What JMVRA actually offers can be checked at the source. The ISSN Portal lists ISSN 2984-8911; a Crossref DOI is available on request, and records can be checked on Crossref Search; Google Scholar hosts a citation profile; OpenAlex offers a discovery search link; and Scholar9 documents the transparent, double-blind review. If your institution insists on Web of Science, select a journal from the Master Journal List and confirm it there.

At-a-Glance Checklist

1. Index statedSCIE, SSCI, AHCI or ESCI
2. MJL searchedLook up the ISSN in the Master Journal List
3. JIF taken from JCR aloneNot from adverts or unfamiliar websites
4. Quartile with contextCategory and year given
5. JMVRA’s position understoodIt is not indexed in Web of Science

Reading Citation Database Metrics With a Critical Eye

Metrics such as impact figures and quartile labels attract attention, yet they are easily misunderstood. These cautions help you use them as one input among many instead of a verdict on your work.

• Know what a metric measures. An impact figure describes a journal's citation pattern, not the quality of any single paper. Remember this when someone quotes a number to praise or dismiss your article.
• Compare within the same field. Citation habits differ widely between disciplines, so compare journals only inside the same subject area. A fair comparison across unrelated fields is rarely possible.
• Check the source of any figure. If a journal quotes a metric, ask which organisation produced it and whether you can reproduce it. Unsourced figures should not influence your decision.
• Look beyond the label. Read the journal's scope, review process and recent articles as well. A respected label cannot compensate for a poor fit with your topic.

Treat metrics as context, confirm where each figure comes from and always judge fit and quality directly.

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