Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A cancer-biology researcher preparing a grant biosketch cites 'Cancer Cell, JIF 56.1 (2025 JCR data)' alongside the publication date and DOI, rather than an unlabeled or undated number, so a reviewer can see exactly which JCR year the figure came from.
- Is an instance
A department's annual research-output report lists faculty publications in Cancer Cell under Cell Press-family oncology journals, distinguishing them from AACR-family journals (Cancer Research, Cancer Discovery) that a co-author's CV also lists, since a lay reader could otherwise assume they are the same publication.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Citing 'Cancer Research's impact factor' when the paper was actually published in Cancer Cell (or vice versa) -- these are two entirely different journals from two different publishers (Cell Press/Elsevier vs. the American Association for Cancer Research) that happen to share the word 'Cancer' in their titles and both sit in the oncology field; conflating them misrepresents the venue.
- Not an instance
Treating Cancer Cell and Cancer Discovery (also AACR-published) as interchangeable because both are prestigious, cancer-focused, Q1-ranked titles -- each carries its own distinct JIF calculated from its own citation record and must be looked up and cited separately.
Editorial commentary
The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) for Cancer Cell is the Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (JCR) metric for this specific Cell Press oncology journal — not to be confused with the similarly named but entirely separate Cancer Research or Cancer Discovery, both published by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
What journal this term refers to
Cancer Cell is a peer-reviewed journal covering cancer biology and translational oncology, published by Cell Press (an Elsevier imprint) since 2002 (ISSN 1535-6108 print / 1878-3686 online). It is part of the broader Cell Press family alongside flagship titles such as Cell and Cell Reports, though each of these journals has its own distinct scope, editorial board, and Journal Impact Factor — they should never be cited interchangeably.
Current reported figure
According to Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports (via Wikipedia’s sourced infobox, cross-checked against independent JIF-aggregator sites), Cancer Cell‘s most recently released JIF is 56.1, based on 2025 citation data (2026 JCR release) — up from a reported 44.5 for the 2024 data year (2025 release). Clarivate’s own JCR platform is subscription-gated, so this figure should be treated as REPORTED-tier (sourced via a secondary aggregation of the official release) rather than a first-hand primary-source confirmation; always verify the live figure against the publisher’s journal page or an institutional JCR subscription before citing it formally.
Why the distinction from Cancer Research and Cancer Discovery matters
Because ‘cancer’ appears in several unrelated high-impact journal titles, mixing them up is a common and consequential citation error:
- Cancer Cell — Cell Press (Elsevier); est. 2002; ISSN 1535-6108.
- Cancer Research — American Association for Cancer Research (AACR); est. 1916; see the CASRAI Cancer Research impact factor entry.
- Cancer Discovery — also AACR-published, a separate title with its own separate JIF.
Each carries a different JIF, different editorial scope, and a different publisher. A CV, biosketch, or promotion dossier that misattributes a citation count or impact factor to the wrong one of these three journals is presenting inaccurate information, even if the error is an honest mix-up rather than intentional.
How to use this figure responsibly
As with any single-journal metric, JIF should not stand in for individual-article quality — this is the core position of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). See the general Journal Impact Factor entry for how the metric is calculated and its known limitations, and the CASRAI guide on how to look up a journal’s impact factor for a step-by-step lookup process.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Cancer Cell’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF)"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cancer-cell-impact-factor" />{
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"description": "Cancer Cell is a peer-reviewed oncology and cancer-biology journal published by Cell Press (an Elsevier imprint), first issued in 2002 (ISSN 1535-6108 print / 1878-3686 online). Its Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is the annual Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (JCR) metric calculated as the mean number of citations, in the JCR year, to articles the journal published in the two preceding years, divided by the number of citable items in that window. Per Clarivate's JCR (as reported via Wikipedia's sourced infobox and corroborated by independent JIF-aggregator sites), Cancer Cell's most recently released JIF is 56.1, based on 2025 citation data (2026 JCR release) -- up from a reported 44.5 for the 2024 data year (2025 release). Always confirm the current figure directly against Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports (subscription-gated) or the publisher's own journal page before citing it in a CV, grant application, or promotion dossier, since JIF is recalculated annually and aggregator sites can lag or round the official release.",
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"dateModified": "2026-07-23T06:59:56",
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