Direct comparison
SJR vs CiteScore vs Altmetric vs Nature Index
SJR, CiteScore, Eigenfactor, Altmetric and Nature Index compared: what each measures, data source, citation window, and which one to use for what.
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How do SJR (SCImago Journal Rank), CiteScore, Eigenfactor / Article Influence, Altmetric Attention Score, Nature Index (Count/Share) compare side by side?
The table below compares SJR (SCImago Journal Rank), CiteScore, Eigenfactor / Article Influence, Altmetric Attention Score, Nature Index (Count/Share) across 9 procurement-relevant dimensions, from what it measures through free to access?.
Side-by-side comparison
| Dimension | SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) | CiteScore | Eigenfactor / Article Influence | Altmetric Attention Score | Nature Index (Count/Share) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Prestige-weighted citations per document (citations from higher-prestige journals count more) | Simple average of citations per document, all citations weighted equally | A journal's total citation influence across the JCR network; Article Influence Score normalizes that per article | Weighted online attention to one specific article (news, policy, blogs, social media, Wikipedia) | Article output (Count) and fractional authorship credit (Share) in a fixed list of high-reputation journals |
| Level | Journal | Journal | Journal | Individual article / output | Institution / country |
| Who publishes it | SCImago Research Group (independent, not Elsevier) | Elsevier (Scopus) | Eigenfactor project (Univ. of Washington), licensed to Clarivate for JCR | Altmetric.com (Digital Science) | Springer Nature |
| Underlying data source | Scopus | Scopus | Web of Science (JCR-indexed journals only) | Proprietary tracking of news, policy documents, blogs, X/Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, post-publication review | Author affiliations on articles in 82+ independently curated natural- and health-science journals |
| Citation / data window | 3 years | 4 years | 5 years | None fixed — real-time, cumulative from publication onward | Rolling ~12-month tracking period, continuously updated |
| Field-normalized? | No (prestige-weighted, not field-weighted) | No | No explicit subject-category normalization | No | No — fixed journal list skews toward natural/health sciences |
| Good for | Comparing journal prestige within a subject category, free | Simple, transparent, free citation average; fairer to slow-citing fields than a 2-year window | Distinguishing genuinely influential journals from ones with many low-value citations | Early, real-world evidence of reach/engagement before citations accrue | Benchmarking institutional/national output in top natural- and health-science venues |
| Main criticism | Opaque algorithm to non-specialists; still a journal-level average | Broader document scope than JIF makes cross-metric comparison misleading; no prestige or field weighting | Limited to JCR-indexed journals only; raw score is size-dependent | Measures attention, not validity or quality; gameable; a retracted paper can score very high | Narrow, curated journal list; excludes humanities/social sciences/most engineering entirely |
| Free to access? | Yes (scimagojr.com) | Yes (scopus.com/sources) | Yes, inside free JCR journal profile pages | Free per-article badge; full Explorer platform is subscription | Yes (nature.com/nature-index) |
Common questions
Common questions about SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) vs CiteScore vs Eigenfactor / Article Influence vs Altmetric Attention Score vs Nature Index (Count/Share)
What is Altmetric?
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Altmetric.com is a Digital Science company that tracks online attention to individual research outputs and produces the Altmetric Attention Score, a weighted count of that attention for one specific article, dataset, or preprint. It is not a journal metric.
What is SCImago (SJR)?
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SCImago is the independent research group that produces the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), a free, Scopus-based, prestige-weighted journal metric. SCImago is not affiliated with Elsevier, though SJR uses licensed Scopus data.
What is Eigenfactor?
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Eigenfactor is a journal-influence metric using a 5-year, PageRank-style analysis of Web of Science citation data, published inside Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports. Its companion, the Article Influence Score, normalizes that influence per article.
Is CiteScore the same as the Journal Impact Factor?
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No. CiteScore uses Scopus data with a 4-year window and a broader document scope; the Journal Impact Factor uses Web of Science data with a 2-year window and a narrower "citable items" definition. The two numbers are not directly comparable for the same journal.
Can these metrics be used to evaluate an individual researcher for tenure or promotion?
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Not on their own. DORA and CoARA both recommend against using journal-level metrics as a proxy for individual quality. SJR, CiteScore, and Eigenfactor are journal averages; Altmetric measures attention, not validity; Nature Index measures institutional output, not individual quality.
What does "journal metrics" mean in general?
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"Journal metrics" is an umbrella term for any indicator calculated at the journal level (as opposed to the article or author level) — the Journal Impact Factor, SJR, CiteScore, Eigenfactor/Article Influence Score, and SNIP are the most commonly cited examples. All of them are averages or aggregates across a journal's output in a given window, which is exactly why none of them should be applied to a single article or author.
How is the SJR ranking calculated?
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SJR uses an iterative algorithm (similar in structure to Google's PageRank) applied to three years of Scopus citation data: a journal's score rises when it is cited, and rises more when those citations come from journals that are themselves highly ranked. Self-citations are capped at 33% of a journal's total references so the score cannot be inflated by a journal citing its own articles.
Is Nature Index a journal ranking?
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Not in the SJR/CiteScore sense. Nature Index doesn't rank or score individual journals — it uses a fixed, independently curated list of high-reputation journals as the basis for tracking and ranking countries and institutions by their output (Count and Share) within that list.
