JHED is committed to maintaining and continuously improving its academic standing through transparent, measurable, and internationally recognized impact metrics. The following criteria provide a clear overview of how the journal's scholarly influence is evaluated and monitored.
Self-Citation Score
Self-citation refers to instances in which a journal cites its own previously published articles within new publications. While intra-journal citation can be a natural and legitimate reflection of an established body of work, excessive self-citation is considered a form of citation manipulation and is condemned by indexing bodies such as Scopus, Web of Science, and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
JHED's Self-Citation Policy:
|
Acceptable Self-Citation Rate: |
Below 10% of total citations per article |
|
Journal-Level Self-Citation: |
Monitored annually; maintained below 15% of total outgoing citations |
|
Author Self-Citation: |
Authors encouraged to cite own work only when directly relevant; excessive self-citation flagged during review |
JHED's editorial team actively monitors self-citation patterns and authors whose manuscripts display disproportionate or unjustified self-referencing are asked to revise their reference lists prior to acceptance. This ensures the journal's citation metrics accurately represent genuine scholarly influence rather than artificially inflated figures.
Our self-citation rates are disclosed annually in the journal's editorial report available at ijhed.com, as part of our commitment to metric transparency.
Total Citation Rate
The total citation rate reflects how frequently articles published in JHED are cited by other peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, books, and academic databases. This is one of the most meaningful indicators of a journal's scholarly relevance and the lasting value of its published research.
JHED benchmarks its total citation rate against peer journals within the humanities and education development space, including journals indexed in ERIC, Scopus, Google Scholar, and DOAJ. Our editorial strategy prioritizes attracting manuscripts with strong citation potential by:
- Accepting research that addresses contemporary and pressing questions in humanities and education.
- Maintaining a diverse author network drawn from institutions across multiple continents.
- Publishing timely special issues on emerging topics that attract high readership and citation activity.
- Ensuring all published articles are assigned permanent DOIs and indexed across major academic databases for maximum discoverability.
Citation Performance Overview:
|
Average Citations per Article (3-Year Window): |
6–12 citations (humanities & education sector benchmark) |
|
Top-Cited Article Citations: |
Available in Journal Metrics Report at ijhed.com |
|
Indexing Databases: |
Google Scholar, ERIC, CrossRef, ResearchGate, Academia.edu |
The editorial board reviews citation data on a biannual basis to identify high-impact research areas, inform the journal's strategic scope, and recognize authors whose work has made significant contributions to their fields.
CiteScore (Citation Impact Over Time)
CiteScore is a widely recognized metric developed by Elsevier's Scopus platform that measures the average number of citations received per document published in a journal over a four-year period. It provides a robust, longitudinal view of a journal's academic impact by capturing citation activity across an extended time horizon, reducing the bias associated with single-year metrics.
How JHED's CiteScore Is Calculated:
CiteScore = Total citations received in Year N for documents published in Years N, N-1, N-2, and N-3 divided by the total number of documents published in those four years.
JHED actively works to improve its CiteScore through the following strategic measures:
- Prioritizing publication of review articles, meta-analyses, and conceptual frameworks that tend to attract higher citation rates.
- Actively engaging with the academic community through social media, academic networks, and open-access dissemination to maximize article reach.
- Collaborating with internationally recognized scholars and institutions to broaden the journal's citation ecosystem.
- Ensuring rapid publication timelines so that research enters the academic conversation while topics are current and highly cited by peers.
- Providing all authors with post-publication support including promotional toolkits, DOI sharing guidance, and indexing notifications.
JHED's CiteScore targets and performance data are available in the annual Journal Impact Report published on ijhed.com. The journal is in active pursuit of Scopus indexing and meeting the CiteScore benchmarks required for recognition in the humanities and education development sector.
We encourage all authors, reviewers, and readers to support the journal's mission by citing relevant JHED articles in their own work wherever appropriate, contributing to a more interconnected and impactful academic ecosystem.