Step 1 — Confirm it is indexed, and where
The Web of Science Master Journal List (mjl.clarivate.com) tells you whether a journal is in the Core Collection and which index it sits in — SCIE, SSCI, AHCI or ESCI. A free account is needed for full profiles. For Scopus, check scopus.com/sources or download Elsevier’s free Scopus Source List.
This step comes first because a quartile cannot exist without indexing. If the journal is in neither index, any "Q1" claim on its site is false by definition.
The Master Journal List does not show impact factors or quartiles. It answers one question: is this journal indexed, and in which index.
Step 2 — Check the SJR quartile on SCImago (free)
scimagojr.com is fully free and needs no account. Search the journal and open its profile. The important element is the quartile chart, which shows one line per subject category over time — not just the headline figure.
Read every category, not the best one. SCImago’s table column is literally headed "SJR Best Quartile", so the number a journal advertises may come from a category that has little to do with your paper.
Step 3 — Check CiteScore, which is a different quartile
Scopus publishes a CiteScore quartile alongside SJR, and they are not the same measure. CiteScore counts citations over four years without prestige weighting; SJR uses a three-year window and weights citations by the citing journal’s prestige. A journal can hold different quartiles under each.
A common false economy: several guides claim Elsevier’s free Scopus Source List spreadsheet contains CiteScore and quartiles. It does not. Read directly, the file contains titles, ISSNs, active status, coverage years, publisher and subject codes — no metrics at all. It is an indexing check, not a metrics check.
Step 4 — The JCR quartile, if you need it
The Journal Impact Factor quartile requires a Web of Science or JCR subscription, normally through a university library. There is no free public JCR lookup, and anything presenting itself as one is a third-party scrape of unknown vintage.
Which system you need depends on who is assessing you. Some institutions and funders specify JCR quartiles; others accept Scopus. Ask before you target, because a journal that is Q1 in one system may not be in the other.
Mind the year
Quartile data lags, and the three systems update at different times. For the 2025 citation year: SCImago published on 15 April 2026, CiteScore on 3 June 2026, and the Journal Citation Reports on 17 June 2026.
There is also a naming trap worth knowing. The "2026 JCR" contains the 2025 Journal Impact Factor — Clarivate names the release by publication year while the metric is named by data year. CVs and publisher pages are inconsistent about this, so state the data year explicitly when you cite a quartile.