What is SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)?

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) is weighted by the prestige of a journal. Subject field, quality, and reputation of the journal have a direct effect on the value of a citation.

SJR assigns relative scores to all of the sources in a citation network. Its methodology is inspired by the Google PageRank algorithm, in that not all citations are equal. A source transfers its own prestige, or status, to another source through the act of citing it. A citation from a source with a relatively high SJR is worth more than a citation from a source with a lower SJR.

The prestige of a source for a particular year is shared equally over all the citations it makes in that year; this is important because it corrects for the fact that typical citation counts vary widely between subject fields. The SJR of a source in a field with a high likelihood of citing is shared over a lot of citations, so each citation is worth relatively little. The SJR of a source in a field with a low likelihood of citing is shared over few citations, so each citation is worth relatively more. The result is to even out the differences in citation practice between subject fields and facilitate direct comparisons of sources.

SJR emphasizes those sources that are used by prestigious titles. SJR allows the user to rank their own customized set of sources, regardless of their subject fields.

Browsing and analyzing sources