Rapid increase in citations and Impact Factor

High download numbers have driven rapid increases in citations to IWA Publishing journals.

As a result, our median Impact Factor rose by an impressive 39% in the 2021 Journal Citation Reports, which were published in summer 2021. The typical Water Resources journal increased by a more modest 12%.

The positive effect of S2O on citation levels has been very clear. Citations to the 10 S2O journals were 115% higher in 2022 than in 2020, the last year before S2O was introduced. They also come from a wider distribution of countries. In 2020, just over half of the citations to the S2O journals came from the Global South. In 2022, this proportion had risen to 66% (see Figure 4 below). IWA Publishing journals are being read and cited more everywhere. The increase is especially large in countries in the Global South.