In addition to parasitic and pseudo/misleading journals, authors should be aware with misleading indicators as well. These values are not authentic, they are usually placed as a deception on the pages of parasitic journals. Typically, the names of false indicators often include the terms “impact factor” or “impact” or “factor”. Thus, reference to the official impact factor is frequent! In order for a journal to have an official impact factor, it must meet several well-defined criteria of scientific quality; in particular, it must be included in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) database (Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Emereging Sources Citation Index). You can read more about the official conditions for the inclusion of journals in the WoS CC at the Journal evaluation process and selection criteria webpage.
The official impact factor for journals is calculated each year by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters), and official data can be found in the Journal Citation Reports database (https://jcr.clarivate.com/), which is also available at Semmelweis University Central Library.
More information:
- Unofficial list of possible misleading indicators:
https://beallslist.weebly.com/misleading-metrics.html - Archived list of possible misleading indicators and a brief description of the characteristics of misleading indicators (not updated, last modified: 11/01/2017): http://web.archive.org/web/20170111172311/https://scholarlyoa.com/other-pages/misleading-metrics/