Current Biology’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF)

Current Biology's Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a specific, illustrative instance of the general Journal Impact Factor metric published annually by Clarivate in the <a href='/dictionary/term/journal-citation-reports'>Journal Citation Reports (JCR)</a>. Current Biology is a Cell Press biweekly life-sciences journal (Cell Press became part of Elsevier in 1998/2001) launched in 1991 (ISSN 0960-9822), covering molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, neurobiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Its JIF is calculated and reported entirely independently of the JIF for Cell Press's founding flagship journal, <a href='/dictionary/term/cell-impact-factor'>Cell</a>, even though both share the Cell Press imprint. See the general <a href='/dictionary/term/journal-impact-factor'>Journal Impact Factor</a> entry for how the metric is defined and its well-documented limitations as a research-assessment tool.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 23 Jul 2026

Worked examples

Is an instance

A biosketch listing a Current Biology first-author paper alongside its journal's reported Impact Factor for the relevant JCR year

Is an instance

A library or bibliometrics team pulling Current Biology's JIF, JIF 5-Year, and JCR quartile from the annual Journal Citation Reports release to benchmark it against other Cell Press and general-biology titles

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance

Citing Current Biology's CiteScore (a Scopus-based, Elsevier-calculated, four-year-window metric) and calling it the journal's 'impact factor' — CiteScore and JIF are methodologically distinct metrics from different indexers

Not an instance

Assuming Current Biology's Impact Factor is the same as Cell's because both are Cell Press journals — each title's JIF is calculated and reported independently

Current Biology’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). Current Biology is a Cell Press biweekly life-sciences journal covering molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, neurobiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, launched in 1991 (ISSN 0960-9822). Cell Press became part of Elsevier’s portfolio in 1998, formally organized under the Cell Press imprint from 2001. Current Biology’s JIF is calculated and reported entirely independently of the JIF for Cell Press’s founding flagship title, Cell’s Journal Impact Factor, even though both carry the Cell Press name. See the general Journal Impact Factor entry for how the underlying metric is defined and its well-documented limitations as a research-assessment tool.

What Makes This an Instance of the Metric

A journal-specific Impact Factor is an instance of the general JIF concept applied to one named title in one JCR release year. Three things distinguish it from the general definition: (1) it is tied to a specific JCR edition, since the reported figure changes with each June release as the citation and publication windows roll forward; (2) it reflects a two-year citation/publication window (citations in the JCR year to items published in the two preceding years, divided by the count of citable items — articles and reviews — published in those same two years); and (3) it is one metric among several a JCR record reports for a title, alongside the JIF 5-Year and JCR quartile ranking within its subject categories.

Reported Figures

Multiple third-party JCR-tracking aggregators (journalmetrics.org, resurchify.com, wos-journal.info) report Current Biology’s 2-year Journal Impact Factor at approximately 7.7 for the 2025 JCR data year (Clarivate’s June 2026 release), with a reported 5-year Impact Factor around 9.5, JCR Quartile 1. Wikipedia’s infobox (sourced to JCR) separately reports a figure closer to 7.3 for the preceding 2024 data year. These figures are broadly consistent with a year-over-year trend rather than a large single-source discrepancy, but CASRAI could not independently confirm either number against a live jcr.clarivate.com subscription or a fetch of cell.com/current-biology’s own metrics page this session — treat any specific number cited here as reported/aggregator-sourced, not primary-source-verified, and check the current JCR release or the journal’s own information page for the figure relevant to a specific citation, application, or assessment.

Worked Example

A researcher preparing a grant biosketch or a tenure dossier who lists a first-author Current Biology paper alongside its journal’s Impact Factor is using the metric exactly as this term describes: a single Clarivate-computed number, specific to Current Biology and to one JCR edition, standing in for a broader claim about the journal’s citation impact. Because Current Biology and Cell are both Cell Press titles but carry substantially different Impact Factors, citing one journal’s JIF as if it applied to the other, or treating shared Cell Press ownership as implying a shared metric, is a common and avoidable error.

Counter-Example

A journal’s CiteScore, Scopus-based and Elsevier-calculated using a four-year citation/publication window, is not the same figure as its Journal Impact Factor, even though both are sometimes loosely described as “the journal’s impact factor” in informal usage. Current Biology has a CiteScore distinct from its JIF; citing one when the other is meant is a common conflation, not a synonym. See CiteScore and the CiteScore vs. Journal Impact Factor comparison for the methodological differences.

Related Terms

Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — the general metric definition
Cell’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — Cell Press’s flagship-journal sibling term
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) — the Clarivate publication that reports the JIF annually
CiteScore — the Scopus-based alternative metric, methodologically distinct

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