Molecular Cell’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF)

Molecular Cell’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). Molecular Cell (ISSN 1097-2765) is a Cell Press research journal in molecular and cell biology, launched in the late 1990s, and its JIF is computed and reported entirely independently of the JIF for Cell — Cell Press’s older, higher-JIF flagship title — and Cell Reports — Cell Press’s open-access sister journal — even though all three carry the Cell Press name.

What the number actually measures

The JIF is a ratio: citations received in a given year to a journal’s citable items (articles and reviews) published in the two preceding years, divided by the number of those citable items. Molecular Cell is indexed in Clarivate’s Science Citation Index Expanded and receives its own JIF on that basis, computed the same mechanical way as every other JCR-indexed title.

A note on the current figure

Third-party JCR-tracking aggregators report Molecular Cell’s 2-year JIF in the mid-to-high teens: figures seen include roughly 16.6 for the 2024 JCR data year (2025 release) and roughly 16.0 for the 2025 JCR data year (2026 release), with a JCR Quartile 1 placement in cell biology. As with other single-journal figures on this site, aggregator pages do not fully agree with one another even across the same tracking site, which is typical when different releases or caching lags are being reflected, and Cell Press’s own metrics page (cell.com/molecular-cell) was not independently reachable to confirm one authoritative figure at the time of writing. Treat any single number you see cited as time-stamped to a specific JCR release — Clarivate updates JCR every June — and check jcr.clarivate.com or cell.com/molecular-cell directly for the current, release-dated figure before citing it in a formal context such as a CV, grant application, or tenure file.

Worked example

If Molecular Cell published 500 citable items across two preceding years, and those items collectively received 8,000 citations in the JCR data year, the resulting JIF would be 8,000 / 500 = 16.0 — the same arithmetic Clarivate applies to every JCR-indexed journal. What differs between journals is the citation and publication volume feeding the ratio, not the formula itself.

Molecular Cell vs. Cell vs. Cell Reports: three separate figures

Molecular Cell, Cell, and Cell Reports are all published under the Cell Press imprint, but they are editorially and commercially distinct journals with separately computed JIFs that should never be used interchangeably. Cell is Cell Press’s original 1974 flagship title with the narrowest acceptance bar and the highest reported JIF (low-to-mid 40s per aggregator tracking). Molecular Cell sits in the middle: a more specialized, still highly selective title with a reported JIF in the mid-to-high teens — roughly a third of Cell’s figure. Cell Reports is the newest (2012-launched), fully open-access, broadest-scope title of the three, with a reported JIF in the high single digits across recent JCR releases. Citing one journal’s figure while referring to another by name is a sourcing error worth double-checking before it goes into a CV or grant narrative; always confirm which specific Cell Press title’s JCR entry you are quoting.

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. A selective specialist journal’s JIF is heavily shaped by a small number of highly cited papers and by field-level citation norms, so the same score means different things depending on what is being compared. DORA’s core recommendation is not to eliminate the JIF, but to stop treating it as a proxy for the quality of a specific paper or the merit of an individual researcher’s work — a distinction that matters when Molecular Cell’s JIF gets cited in tenure, promotion, or grant-review contexts as if it described any one article published there, rather than the journal’s two-year citation average as a whole.

Counter-example

Molecular Cell’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. Similarly, an individual highly cited article published in Molecular Cell does not ‘have’ the journal’s JIF — the metric is computed at the journal level, not the article level, which is precisely the conflation DORA’s guidance warns against.

Related terms

• Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — the general metric this page illustrates with one journal’s current figure.
• Cell’s Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — Cell Press’s flagship title; roughly three times Molecular Cell’s reported figure.
• Cell Reports’ Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — Cell Press’s open-access sister journal; not interchangeable with Molecular Cell’s own figure.
• 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.