Cureus Impact Factor: Why There Is No JIF in 2026

Cureus’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF)

Cureus'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) -- with one important current wrinkle: Cureus does not have an active JIF as of this writing (last verified 2026-08-16). Cureus (ISSN 2168-8184), an open-access general medical journal owned by Springer Nature since December 2022, was placed 'on hold' by Clarivate in September 2024 and formally removed from the Web of Science Master Journal List in October 2025, following a period of substantial retraction activity and stated article-quality concerns. Removal from Web of Science means Cureus no longer accrues the citation counts a JIF is calculated from and does not receive a JCR figure for 2025 or any subsequent year. Before delisting, third-party JCR-tracking aggregators reported Cureus's most recent 2-year JIF variously as approximately 1.2 (2022 JCR release) and approximately 1.3 (2024 release); cureus.com's own current marketing copy separately cites an undated 'Impact Factor of 1.3' that does not acknowledge the delisting. Any impact-factor number for Cureus found online should be treated as historical, not current, and checked against Clarivate's live Master Journal List rather than cited as an active figure.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 17 Aug 2026

Ask about Cureus’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF)

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Worked examples

Is an instance

A researcher checking Clarivate's live Web of Science Master Journal List directly for Cureus's current indexing status, rather than citing a remembered, aggregator-sourced, or undated publisher-marketing impact-factor figure, before referencing the journal in a CV or grant narrative.

Is an instance

An author comparing Cureus's post-publication SIQ (Scholarly Impact Quotient) rating for their own article against a separately published article's Clarivate JIF, correctly treating the two as different, non-interchangeable metrics rather than versions of the same number.

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance

Citing a 'current Cureus impact factor' of 1.2 or 1.3 pulled from an aggregator site, or from cureus.com's own undated marketing copy, as though it reflects an active, up-to-date Clarivate figure -- Cureus was removed from the Web of Science Master Journal List in October 2025 and does not currently receive a JIF.

Not an instance

Treating Cureus's SIQ score as equivalent to a Journal Impact Factor -- SIQ is a Cureus-specific, reader-driven post-publication rating tool built into the journal's own platform, not a Clarivate JCR metric, and the two are not comparable or interchangeable.

Searches for Cureus’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) are common, but the honest current answer differs from most other named-journal impact-factor lookups: Cureus does not have one right now. Like the general Journal Impact Factor entry this page illustrates, the JIF is a citation ratio Clarivate calculates annually from a journal’s Web of Science-indexed citation data and publishes in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) — but that calculation depends on continuous Web of Science indexing, and Cureus lost that status in 2025.

Current status: no active Impact Factor

Clarivate placed Cureus (ISSN 2168-8184) ‘on hold’ in its Web of Science indexing in September 2024, and formally removed the journal from the Web of Science Master Journal List in October 2025. Clarivate has not published a detailed public rationale, but the removal followed a period of substantial retraction activity and reported article-quality concerns. Because Web of Science indexing is the source of the citation data a JIF is built from, delisting means Cureus does not receive a 2025 Impact Factor and will not receive one for subsequent years unless it is re-indexed. This is a live, checkable fact, not a stable one — confirm current status directly against Clarivate’s Master Journal List (mjl.clarivate.com) rather than an older cached description, including this one.

What Cureus’s own site currently says

Cureus’s own publisher site (cureus.com, checked directly during this revision) currently describes the title as “a Springer Nature journal with an Impact Factor of 1.3” in its general marketing copy, without stating which JCR data year that figure belongs to. This is a primary-source (publisher) statement, but it is not dated, and it does not mention the Web of Science hold or October 2025 delisting described above. CASRAI could not reach Clarivate’s Master Journal List interface (a JS-driven application) to independently confirm Cureus’s live indexing status in this session. Readers should treat cureus.com’s “1.3” figure as the publisher’s own historical/marketing reference rather than confirmation of a current, active JCR Impact Factor, and should not assume it reflects a post-delisting reinstatement unless independently confirmed against Clarivate’s Master Journal List directly.

What Cureus’s Impact Factor was before delisting

Before removal, Cureus did receive JCR figures for several annual cycles. Third-party JCR-tracking aggregator sites report Cureus’s most recent 2-year JIF inconsistently — figures cited include approximately 1.2, attributed to the 2022 JCR release, and approximately 1.3, attributed to a 2024 release — with different aggregator pages disagreeing about which figure is the journal’s actual ‘last’ one (a figure near 1.3 is also what cureus.com’s own marketing copy currently cites, per the note above). Neither figure could be independently confirmed against a single primary Clarivate source at the time of writing, since a delisted journal’s JCR entry is not maintained the way a currently-indexed journal’s is. Treat any specific Cureus JIF number found online as historical background at best, not as a current, citable figure.

Editorial model and scope

Cureus is an open-access general medical journal, originally launched as PeerEMed in 2009 and relaunched under the Cureus name in December 2012; Springer Nature acquired it in December 2022. Its defining editorial characteristics, independent of its Web of Science status, are a high-volume, broad-scope publishing model — it accepts submissions across the full range of clinical medicine and related fields rather than specializing in one subdiscipline — and a peer-review workflow built around speed: pre-publication peer review followed by an optional post-publication commentary and rating layer. Cureus also runs its own in-house metric, the Scholarly Impact Quotient (SIQ), a reader-driven, post-publication score generated on the journal’s own platform. SIQ is frequently confused with a Journal Impact Factor because both are described casually as an article or journal’s ‘impact score,’ but the two are unrelated: SIQ is Cureus-specific and crowdsourced from readers after publication, while JIF is a citation-count ratio Clarivate computes centrally across all Web of Science-indexed journals using the same formula. This breadth-and-speed model is a legitimate, disclosed editorial choice, distinct from — not inherently better or worse than — the narrower-scope, longer-review-cycle model of many specialty journals; the two serve different purposes and should be evaluated on their own disclosed terms rather than assumed to be directly comparable on impact-factor grounds alone, especially now that Cureus has no active JIF to compare.

Why this matters for how the figure gets cited

Per DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) and CoARA’s responsible-assessment guidance, journal-level metrics generally should not substitute for evaluating the actual content of a specific paper or the contributions of a specific researcher. Cureus’s delisting sharpens that caution in a specific, practical way: citing a stale or aggregator-sourced ‘Cureus impact factor’ in a CV, grant application, or tenure file risks stating a figure Clarivate no longer maintains or endorses as current — and, per the note above, the publisher’s own marketing copy currently reciting an undated “1.3” figure doesn’t resolve that risk either. Anyone evaluating a Cureus publication for its citation record should check the live Master Journal List status first, note SIQ and JIF as separate metrics if either is cited, and rely on a live JCR/Master Journal List lookup rather than a remembered or previously seen number.

Related terms

Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — the general metric this page illustrates with one currently-delisted journal’s status.
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) — the Clarivate publication a JIF is drawn from, and that Cureus no longer appears in.
Heliyon’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — a related but less severe case: Heliyon was placed on the same September 2024 Web of Science hold but was relisted in May 2026 rather than delisted.
New England Journal of Medicine’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — a contrasting single-journal instance that remains actively Web of Science-indexed.
CiteScore — Elsevier/Scopus’s separately computed journal-level metric, which uses different eligibility criteria than JCR.
DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) — the reform commitment behind the over-reliance caution above.
Is Cureus Peer Reviewed? — CASRAI’s companion guide on Cureus’s editorial and review process.
How to Look Up a Journal’s Impact Factor — the practical lookup guide this term supports, including Cureus’s delisting as a named example.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Cureus have a current impact factor in 2026?

No, per Clarivate’s Web of Science Master Journal List status as last checked. Clarivate placed Cureus on hold in its Web of Science indexing in September 2024 and formally removed it from the Web of Science Master Journal List in October 2025. Because a Journal Impact Factor is calculated from Web of Science-indexed citation data, Cureus does not receive a 2025 Impact Factor and will not receive one in later years unless it is re-indexed. Note that Cureus’s own site currently displays an undated “Impact Factor of 1.3” in its marketing copy; treat that as the publisher’s own historical reference, not independent confirmation of an active current JCR figure.

Why doesn’t Cureus have an impact factor anymore?

Cureus lost Web of Science indexing, the data source a JIF is built from. Clarivate has not published a detailed public rationale for the delisting, but it followed a period of substantial retraction activity at the journal and reported article-quality concerns.

What was Cureus’s impact factor before it was delisted?

Third-party JCR-tracking aggregator sites report figures of approximately 1.2, attributed to the 2022 JCR release, and approximately 1.3, attributed to a 2024 release, but the sources disagree on which is the journal’s actual last figure. Neither could be confirmed against a single primary Clarivate source, so treat any specific Cureus JIF number found online as historical background rather than a current, citable figure.

Does Cureus currently have a JCR quartile ranking, such as Q1 or Q2?

No. A JCR quartile ranking is derived from a journal’s Impact Factor position within its subject category in the Journal Citation Reports, so a journal without an active JIF — as is currently the case for Cureus — does not have a current quartile assignment either.

Is Cureus still published by Springer Nature?

Yes. Springer Nature acquired Cureus in December 2022, and that ownership is separate from the journal’s Web of Science indexing status, which changed later in 2024-2025.

What is Cureus’s ISSN?

Cureus’s ISSN is 2168-8184.

Last verified 2026-08-16, including a direct check of cureus.com’s own current marketing copy (noted above) and an unsuccessful attempt to query Clarivate’s Master Journal List interface directly. Clarivate republishes the Journal Citation Reports every June — re-check Cureus’s live Web of Science status periodically, since re-indexing (or a Heliyon-style relisting) would change the answer on this page.

Use in your systems

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