Home › Journal Guides › JCR Quartiles vs CiteScore Quartiles
Find journals for your paper, then check their quartiles
Paste your title, keywords or abstract. We match it against 28,582 journal papers published by PhD researchers on ScholarsColab and show where the closest work appeared, with each journal’s indexing (SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, ESCI, Scopus, JCR 2024).
How it works: no AI or language model is used. Your words are matched against the titles of real published papers by our mentors; journals are ranked by how many closely matching papers they published. Indexing comes from the SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, ESCI, Scopus and JCR 2024 lists, matched by journal name; “not found in our indexing lists” does not prove a journal is unindexed. Always check a journal’s scope and current indexing before submitting.
The two calculations side by side
| Journal Impact Factor (JCR) | CiteScore (Scopus) | |
|---|---|---|
| Owner and data | Clarivate, Web of Science | Elsevier, Scopus |
| Citations counted | Citations in year Y to items published in Y−1 and Y−2 | Citations in years Y−3 to Y to documents published in Y−3 to Y |
| Divided by | Citable items (articles and reviews) published in Y−1 and Y−2 | All documents counted (articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters, data papers) published in Y−3 to Y |
| Window | 2 years | 4 years |
| Categories for ranking | Web of Science categories | Scopus subject areas |
| Quartiles from | Rank by impact factor within each category | CiteScore percentile within each subject area (Q1 = 75th–99th percentile) |
| Access | Journal Citation Reports (subscription) | Free on Scopus |
A worked example (hypothetical journal)
Imagine a journal in 2024. The numbers below are invented to show the calculation; they are not real data for any journal.
| Step | Impact factor 2024 | CiteScore 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Items counted | 200 articles and reviews in 2022 + 200 in 2023 = 400 | 900 documents published 2021–2024 |
| Citations counted | 1,600 citations in 2024 to the 2022–2023 items | 4,500 citations in 2021–2024 to the 2021–2024 documents |
| Result | 1,600 ÷ 400 = 4.0 | 4,500 ÷ 900 = 5.0 |
| Rank in category | 30th of 120 journals in its Web of Science category | 72nd percentile in its Scopus subject area |
| Quartile | Top 25% → Q1 | 50th–74th percentile → Q2 |
The same journal is Q1 in JCR and Q2 in Scopus. That is not a contradiction: the two systems count different documents, over different windows, and compare the journal with different sets of neighbours.
Why the quartiles can differ
- Different windows: fields where citations build slowly look better over 4 years than over 2.
- Different documents: CiteScore counts conference papers and other items; the impact factor divides only by articles and reviews.
- Different categories: a journal may sit among stronger or weaker neighbours in one system than the other.
- Different coverage: citations from journals indexed in one database but not the other are counted differently.
- Several categories: a journal can be Q1 in one category and Q2 in another, even within one system.
Why both matter
Institutions differ in what they ask for. Some appraisal systems require “Q1/Q2 in JCR”; others accept “Q1/Q2 in Scopus”; some ask for SJR quartiles. Before choosing a journal, find out which system your university, funder or employer uses, and check the journal’s quartile in that system, in the category that fits your paper.
Real data: how indexing relates to citations
Our data does not contain official impact factors or quartiles, which are licensed. But it shows a related pattern in the work of PhD researchers on ScholarsColab:
For papers published 2010–2022, the median number of citations was 32.0 in Web of Science core journals, 14.0 in ESCI journals, 8.0 in Scopus-only journals and 3.0 in journals not found in the lists.How to check a journal’s quartile
- JCR quartile: look the journal up in Journal Citation Reports (usually via your library) and note the quartile in each of its categories.
- CiteScore quartile: open the journal on the free Scopus Sources page and check its CiteScore rank and percentile in each subject area.
- SJR quartile: search the journal on the SCImago Journal Rank website.
- Use the latest year and record which system and category you used.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Q1 journal?
A Q1 journal ranks in the top 25% of journals in its subject category, according to a particular metric and database. The same journal can have a different quartile in another system or category.
What is the difference between JCR and Scopus quartiles?
JCR quartiles rank journals by Journal Impact Factor within Web of Science categories, using a 2-year window. Scopus quartiles usually come from CiteScore percentiles (4-year window) or from SJR, within Scopus subject areas.
How is CiteScore calculated?
CiteScore divides the citations received over four years by the documents published in those same four years, counting articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters and data papers.
How is the impact factor calculated?
The impact factor divides the citations in a year to items published in the previous two years by the number of citable items (articles and reviews) published in those two years.
Why is my journal Q1 in Scopus but Q2 in JCR?
Because the two systems use different data, time windows, document types and subject categories. Use the system your institution requires.
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