2024 Impact Factor results
IOM3 journals celebrate the latest set of publishing metrics and rankings.
Last month Clarivate Analytics released its Journal Citation Reports for 2024 which provide metric calculations and ranking to identify the influence a journal has in its field. The most recognised metric within the global academic community is the Impact Factor, representing the average number of citations received per paper published in a journal during the preceding two years.
In 2024, the rankings for the 15 scientific journals of IOM3 published by SAGE, demonstrated strong performance across Impact Factor results and several other key metrics. Some key highlights from across the portfolio include:
Impact Factors
Several key journals demonstrated a significant rise in impact factors, highlighting the growing influence of our research community. Notable triumphs included Materials Science and Technology (MST) and Ironmaking & Steelmaking (IRS), both rising from 1.7 to 2.2, as well as Mining Technology, which increased from 1.8 to 2.2.
The most significant achievement came from Applied Earth Science (AES), which saw a 56% increase in its impact factor—rising from 0.9 in the 2023 results to 1.4 in 2024.
Whilst International Materials Reviews (IMR) underwent a slight decrease, it successfully defended its position as the highest-ranking journal on the IOM3 portfolio with a result of 15.5 (a 7% decrease from 16.8 in 2023).
IMR likewise maintained its Q1 ranking, placing 29th out of 460 journals in the subject category of Materials Science, Multidisciplinary. In addition, four titles achieved a Q2 ranking this year—doubling the number from last year. These were Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (ISR), Science and Technology of Welding and Joining (STWJ), MST, and IRS.
CiteScores
Almost all IOM3 journals saw increases in their CiteScores for 2024.
A CiteScore is measures the number of citations received per article over a four-year period, offering a yearly snapshot of a journal’s citation impact. Notably, ISR achieved a 48% increase from 2.3 in 2023 to 3.4.
IMR came in a close second for most significant improvement, with its 2023 result of 28.5 raising to as an impressive 41.9. A total of five titles achieved Q1 ranking for 2024, namely: Surface Engineering, International Wood Products Journal (IWPJ), STWJ, IMR and ISR. This was up from three titles last year.
Immediacy Indexes
This metric calculates how quickly articles received citations in its year of publication.
Whilst the portfolio experienced some delays — in part due to a cyberattack that disrupted SAGE’s operations during the summer of 2024 — AES demonstrated a notable exception, with a 450% increase in its Journal Immediacy Index — rising from 0.2 in 2023 to 1.1 in 2024.
Meanwhile, IWPJ saw a 200% improvement for the second consecutive year, increasing from 0.3 in 2023 to 0.9 in 2024.
The IOM3 the journal metric results for the past year present a positive story, highlighting the steady recovery of the portfolio following the transition to new publishers at the beginning of 2024. It is especially encouraging to see that, despite the surge in publications at the end of 2023 ahead of the transfer, and the journals adjusting to their new publishing home, the content continues to be discovered, cited, and to demonstrate influence within their respective fields.
