How to Find JCR Journal Rankings and Quartiles: A Step-by-Step Guide

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For academics, the Journal Citation Reports™ (JCR™) is the definitive and authoritative source for evaluating the impact and influence of scholarly journals. One of its most widely used features is the quartile ranking, a system that categorizes journals from Q1 (top) to Q4 (bottom) within a specific subject area.

Knowing a journal's quartile is often essential for tenure and promotion applications, grant proposals, and deciding where to submit your manuscript. This guide will provide you with the official portal for finding JCR rankings and a step-by-step process for looking up any journal.

What are JCR and Quartile Rankings?
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is an annual publication by Clarivate Analytics. It provides a wealth of metrics about academic journals, including the famous Journal Impact Factor (JIF).

Quartile rankings are a simple way to contextualize a journal's Impact Factor. Instead of just looking at the raw JIF number, the quartile shows how that journal ranks relative to all other journals in the same subject category. The system is straightforward:

Q1: The top 25% of journals in the category.

Q2: Journals in the 25.1% to 50% group.

Q3: Journals in the 50.1% to 75% group.

Q4: Journals in the bottom 25% group.

The Official Portal for JCR Quartile Rankings
The one and only official source for JCR data is Clarivate's own platform.

Official Website: https://jcr.clarivate.com/

Important Note: The Journal Citation Reports is a premium, subscription-based database. You cannot access it for free. Most researchers and students gain access through their university or institutional library's subscription. You will typically need to be on your campus network or log in through your library's online portal to use the JCR.

Step-by-Step Guide to Finding a Journal's Quartile
Once you have access to the JCR database, follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Access the JCR Platform
Log in to the Web of Science or JCR platform directly through your institution's library website.

Step 2: Search for a Journal
On the JCR homepage, you will see a search box that says "Search for journals, categories or publishers." Type the full title of the journal or its unique ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for the most accurate result.

Step 3: Navigate to the Journal's Profile Page
From the search results, click on the journal title. This will take you to its detailed profile page, which contains all of its citation metrics for the latest JCR year (for example, the report released in mid-2025 contains the 2024 data).

Step 4: Find the "Rank" Section
On the journal's profile page, scroll down until you see the section titled "Rank by Journal Impact Factor."

Step 5: Interpret the Quartile Ranking
In this section, you will see a table that lists the journal's performance within every subject category it belongs to.

Look at the "Category" column to see the subject area.

Look at the "Rank" column to see its specific position (e.g., 10 out of 150).

Look at the "Quartile" column to see the Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4 designation.

A journal can be assigned to multiple categories and may have different quartiles in different categories. For example, a journal could be Q1 in "Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology" but Q2 in "Biochemical Research Methods."

A Critical Distinction: JCR vs. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Rankings
For researchers in or collaborating with China, it is vital to understand that there are two different "quartile" systems in common use:

JCR Quartiles (Official): This is the international standard from Clarivate, based purely on the JIF rank within a JCR subject category.

CAS Rankings : This is an independent ranking system created by the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It also uses JCR data but applies its own, more complex methodology to re-categorize and rank the journals into 1-4 "" (quartiles) and designate certain high-performers as "Top Journals" .

The CAS ranking for a journal is often different from the JCR quartile. Because many Chinese universities and research institutes use the CAS ranking for their internal academic evaluations, it is a highly influential system within China.

If you are required to publish in a "Q1" journal, always clarify which ranking system is being used.

Conclusion
The official portal for finding JCR quartile rankings is https://www.google.com/search?q=jcr.clarivate.com, accessible via an institutional subscription. By following the steps outlined above, you can easily find a journal's performance within its field. However, always be mindful of the context—especially the distinction between the official JCR quartiles and the influential CAS rankings—to ensure you are using the correct metric for your specific academic evaluation needs.