Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A hiring committee checking Nature Cancer's current 2-year JIF (reported at roughly 14.3 to 28, depending on release) as one data point among several, understanding the figure describes the journal's two-year citation average, not any specific candidate's paper.
- Is an instance
A librarian explaining to oncology faculty that Nature Cancer and Nature Reviews Cancer are two different journals with two different, separately computed JIFs, despite the near-identical name and shared Nature Portfolio branding.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Citing Nature Reviews Cancer's JIF (substantially higher, as a review-format journal) and calling it "Nature Cancer's impact factor" -- these are two different journals, separately indexed and scored by Clarivate.
- Not an instance
Describing a single highly cited Nature Cancer paper as "having" the journal's JIF, or treating a researcher's Nature Cancer publication record as if the journal's JIF measured that researcher's individual impact -- the metric is computed at the journal level only, which is exactly the conflation DORA's guidance cautions against.
Editorial commentary
Nature Cancer’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a specific, illustrative instance of the general Journal Impact Factor metric published annually by Clarivate in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Nature Cancer is a primary research journal in the Nature Portfolio, published by Springer Nature, launched in January 2020 to cover cancer biology and translational/clinical cancer research. It is a distinct, separately indexed title from Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, and the 60-plus other Nature Portfolio journals — and, despite the near-identical name, it is also a separate title from Nature Reviews Cancer, an older review-format journal in the Nature Reviews family. A JIF reported under any of those other names is never Nature Cancer’s own figure.
What the number actually measures
The JIF is a ratio: citations received in a given year to citable items (articles and reviews) the journal published in the two preceding years, divided by the number of those citable items. Nature Cancer is indexed in Clarivate’s Science Citation Index Expanded and scored within JCR’s oncology-related categories, where it ranks in the top quartile (Q1) among cancer-research journals. As an open-access primary-research title, the JIF applies only to the peer-reviewed research content Clarivate tracks, not to any editorial or commentary content the journal may also carry.
Nature Cancer’s Impact Factor in 2026: what the named sources actually say
Nature Cancer’s Journal Impact Factor is 28.0, for the 2025 JCR data year — the release Clarivate issued in June 2026. The source is Nature Portfolio’s own Journal Metrics page for Nature Cancer (nature.com/natcancer/journal-impact). It appears there verbatim as “Journal Impact Factor: 28.0 (2025)”, retrieved 23 August 2026. That is the publisher restating Clarivate’s number for its own title — not a third-party JCR-tracking aggregator and not a Wikipedia infobox, either of which can lag behind or drift from the release Clarivate actually issued.
Sources disagree, so here are both. An earlier version of this page reported roughly 14.3 for the 2024 data year from third-party trackers, and flagged a further reported jump to about 28.0 as too large to restate as settled fact. Nature Portfolio’s own metrics page now confirms 28.0 for the 2025 data year, so the jump is real and the figure is no longer aggregator-sourced.
Clarivate republishes the JCR every June, so this figure is current only for the 2025 data year. Re-check it at the publisher’s page or in JCR itself before putting it in a CV, tenure file, grant application or funder report — and say which data year you mean when you cite it.
What CASRAI could verify at source
- ISSN: 2662-1347 — Crossref journal record, checked 23 August 2026.
- Publisher: Springer Nature — Crossref journal record, checked 23 August 2026.
- PubMed / MEDLINE: Currently indexed for MEDLINE; MEDLINE coverage v1n1, Jan. 2020- — NLM Catalog record, checked 23 August 2026.
- DOAJ: Not listed in DOAJ (subscription journal) — DOAJ API, checked 23 August 2026.
- Journal Impact Factor: 28.0 for the 2025 JCR data year; 5-year Impact Factor 31.2 — Nature Portfolio’s own Journal Metrics page for Nature Cancer (nature.com/natcancer/journal-impact), retrieved 23 August 2026.
Why this number alone is a poor stand-in for quality
Citation-tracking organizations including DORA, the CoARA coalition, and Clarivate itself caution against over-relying on a single journal-level metric to judge an individual article or researcher. That caution is especially relevant for a journal like Nature Cancer, where the Nature brand alone carries prestige signalling that can get informally transferred to any paper published under it, independent of that specific paper’s own citation record. DORA’s core recommendation is not to eliminate the JIF, but to stop using it as a proxy for the quality of a specific paper or the merit of an individual researcher’s work in hiring, tenure, promotion, or grant-review decisions.
Counter-example
Nature Cancer’s CiteScore (a separate Elsevier/Scopus metric using a four-year citation window and a broader document set) is not the same figure as its Clarivate JIF, and reporting one as if it were the other is a common sourcing error. A specific highly cited Nature Cancer paper does not “have” the journal’s JIF — the metric is computed at the journal level only, never the article level — and neither does an individual author who published there. Two further mix-ups are worth flagging by name: Nature Reviews Cancer is a different, review-format journal with its own separately computed and substantially higher JIF (reported at roughly 60 in recent releases), and Cancer Cell and Cancer Discovery are entirely different journals from different publishers (Cell Press/Elsevier and the American Association for Cancer Research, respectively) — none of those figures is Nature Cancer’s own, despite topical overlap and, in Nature Reviews Cancer’s case, an easily confused name.
Related terms
- Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — the general metric this page illustrates with one journal’s current figure.
- Nature’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — the flagship Nature Portfolio title’s separately computed JIF.
- Nature Medicine’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — a sister Nature Portfolio title’s separately computed JIF.
- Nature Communications’ Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — another sister Nature Portfolio title’s separately computed JIF.
- Cancer Cell’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — a different publisher’s journal in the same field, easily confused by topic overlap.
- Cancer Discovery’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — another different publisher’s journal in the same field.
- CiteScore — Elsevier/Scopus’s competing journal-level metric, different window and denominator.
- DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) — the reform commitment behind the over-reliance caveat above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Nature Cancer’s current Impact Factor?
Independent JCR-tracking aggregators report roughly 14.3 for the JCR release covering 2024 citation data, up from about 12.3 the year before. Several of those same aggregators report a further jump to approximately 28.0 for the release covering 2025 data (June 2026) — a near-doubling that is unusual enough to verify before citing. Nature Cancer’s own journal-information page was not directly reachable during verification, so treat both numbers as reported and cross-corroborated rather than independently confirmed, and check jcr.clarivate.com or nature.com/natcancer/journal-information for the authoritative figure.
Is Nature Cancer the same journal as Nature Reviews Cancer?
No. Despite the near-identical name they are separately indexed titles with separately computed metrics. Nature Cancer is a primary research journal launched in January 2020; Nature Reviews Cancer is an older review-format journal in the Nature Reviews family, with its own substantially higher JIF (reported at roughly 60 in recent releases). Cancer Cell and Cancer Discovery are different journals again, from Cell Press/Elsevier and the American Association for Cancer Research respectively. None of those figures is Nature Cancer’s own.
Is Nature Cancer’s JIF the same as its CiteScore?
No, and reporting one as the other is a common sourcing error. The JIF is Clarivate’s metric, computed from citations in a given year to citable items published in the two preceding years. CiteScore is Elsevier’s Scopus-based metric using a four-year window and a broader document set. Different provider, different window, different denominator — the two numbers are not interchangeable.
Where does Nature Cancer rank among cancer journals?
It is indexed in Clarivate’s Science Citation Index Expanded and scored within JCR’s oncology-related categories, where it ranks in the top quartile (Q1) among cancer-research journals. Quartile placement is category-relative, so it describes standing within those specific JCR categories rather than a standing across all of science.
How often does the figure change?
Clarivate updates the Journal Citation Reports every June, so any specific JIF is a property of a given release, not a fixed property of the journal. A comparatively young, lower-volume specialist title like Nature Cancer is also more exposed than a long-established high-volume journal to a small number of highly cited papers moving its JIF sharply between releases — which is part of why the reported year-over-year jump above is plausible but still worth checking.
Can I use Nature Cancer’s JIF to judge a specific paper or researcher?
No. The metric is computed at the journal level only, never the article level, so a specific highly cited paper does not “have” the journal’s JIF and neither does an author who published there. DORA, the CoARA coalition, and Clarivate itself all caution against using a single journal-level metric as a proxy for the quality of an individual paper or the merit of a researcher in hiring, tenure, promotion, or grant review. The caution has extra force here because the Nature brand carries prestige signalling that gets informally transferred to any paper published under it.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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