Impact factor, predatory & plagiarism

Abstract

These two working documents provide a comprehensive overview of key concepts in scholarly communication, focusing on journal evaluation and publication ethics. The first document defines journal impact factors as citation-based metrics that indicate a journal’s prestige, and introduces popular tools such as CiteScore, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), and the h-index. It also addresses the threat of predatory journals, offering resources like COPE and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to verify legitimacy. Additionally, it outlines common causes of unintentional plagiarism, including inconsistent citations and poor referencing. The second document expands on calculating and comparing impact factors using databases like Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. It provides a detailed comparison of their coverage, strengths, and weaknesses. Together, these documents serve as a practical guide for researchers to identify reputable journals, understand citation metrics, and maintain academic integrity through proper attribution.