Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A molecular biology department's collection-development review cites Nucleic Acids Research's JIF, quartile, and category rank alongside CiteScore when comparing subscription value across biochemistry titles.
- Is an instance
A bibliometrics office lists NAR's JIF as one data point in a departmental research-output summary, alongside category-normalized citation counts, rather than as the sole indicator of the journal's standing.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Using Nucleic Acids Research's JIF to judge the quality or rigor of a specific paper published in the journal, rather than the journal's average two-year citedness.
- Not an instance
Comparing NAR's JIF directly against a journal in an unrelated field (for example, a humanities journal) as if the two numbers were on a comparable scale.
Editorial commentary
Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) is an open-access molecular biology and biochemistry journal published by Oxford University Press, in continuous publication since 1974. Like any Clarivate-indexed journal, it receives an annual Journal Impact Factor (JIF) in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) — the same two-year, citations-over-citable-items calculation used across the JIF system. See the general Journal Impact Factor entry for how the metric itself is computed and why it should not be used to judge individual articles or authors.
Current reported figure
Wikipedia’s infobox for the journal, sourced to JCR, lists NAR’s Impact Factor at 15.0 for the release covering 2024 citation data. Other secondary summaries and aggregator snapshots have cited a lower figure closer to 13.1 for what is nominally the same data year, and journal-metric aggregator sites (bioxbio.com, resurchify.com, wos-journal.info) publish their own periodically-updated figures that do not always agree with each other or with the Wikipedia infobox. This kind of cross-tracker disagreement is common for JIF numbers relayed through secondary sources rather than pulled directly from a live Clarivate subscription. CASRAI has not independently confirmed NAR’s exact current figure against a live jcr.clarivate.com subscription this session; treat any specific number, including the 15.0 and 13.1 figures above, as reported/secondary-source-corroborated rather than primary-verified, and confirm the live figure against Clarivate or your institution’s JCR access before citing it in a formal document such as a grant application or promotion dossier.
Where to verify it yourself
- Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (jcr.clarivate.com) — the authoritative source; requires an institutional subscription.
- Oxford University Press’s journal page for Nucleic Acids Research (academic.oup.com/nar) — publisher-provided journal information and current author guidelines.
- Independent trackers (bioxbio.com, resurchify.com, wos-journal.info and similar sites) republish JCR-derived figures and are useful for a quick check, but as the discrepancy above shows, they can disagree with each other and lag the official release — use them as a starting point, not a citable source of record.
See the companion guide How to Look Up a Journal’s Impact Factor (and What It Actually Tells You) for the general lookup process.
Journal profile
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Scope: Nucleic acids, gene expression, chromosome and genome biology, structural and computational biology, and molecular biology broadly.
- First published: 1974
- ISSN: 0305-1048 (print), 1362-4962 (online)
- Access model: Fully open access, published biweekly.
- JCR category: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Q1 in recent JCR releases per the trackers cited above).
- Notable feature: NAR publishes two dedicated annual special issues — a Database Issue each January profiling biological databases, and a Web Server Issue devoted to web-based bioinformatics software — a publishing model distinct from most comparably-ranked biochemistry journals.
Why the exact number keeps shifting
Three things routinely change a journal’s reported JIF year to year, and NAR is not an exception: (1) Clarivate releases a new JCR every June, covering a new two-year citation window, so last year’s figure is never the current one; (2) aggregator sites update on their own schedules and sometimes retain a stale figure past a new release; (3) since the 2023 JCR release, JIFs are assigned to all Web of Science Core Collection journals rather than only Science/Social Science Citation Index titles, which changed how some adjacent molecular-biology journals entered comparison — worth knowing if you’re benchmarking NAR against a title that only recently became JIF-eligible.
Frequently asked questions
What is Nucleic Acids Research’s current Impact Factor?
Secondary sources place it in a roughly 13-15 range for the most recent JCR data year, with the Wikipedia infobox reporting 15.0; confirm the live figure against Clarivate’s JCR directly for anything formal, since secondary trackers show real disagreement (see above).
Is Nucleic Acids Research a good journal to use for evaluating a researcher?
Its JIF measures journal-level average citedness, not the quality of any individual article or author. Bodies including DORA specifically caution against using any journal-level metric, including NAR’s, as a proxy for an individual researcher’s contribution.
How does NAR’s JIF compare to CiteScore?
JIF (Clarivate, two-year citation window, JCR-indexed journals only) and CiteScore (Elsevier/Scopus, four-year window, broader journal coverage) are computed differently and will not match for the same journal. See CiteScore vs Impact Factor for the full comparison.
Is Nucleic Acids Research an open-access journal?
Yes. NAR has published as a fully open-access journal, with article processing charges borne by authors or their funders/institutions, since converting from a subscription model in 2005.
Related terms
- Journal Impact Factor (JIF) — the general metric definition
- CiteScore — Elsevier’s competing journal-metric
- DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) — the responsible-metrics framework cautioning against JIF misuse
- Impact Factor vs h-index
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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