The PCST considers IF of the respective journal in the year of publications. For example, publications appeared in 2015, will have IF of the Journal issued in Journal Citation Report (JCR) 2016 by Thomson Reuters. If a journal had no IF in early years, system will not accommodate that publication when the respective journal has zero IF. For e.g. if a journal ABC had no IF in 2004, the publication in this year will not be accepted by our system while publications in the same journal in years 2003 or 2005, when the journal had IF , will be accommodated.

Similarly, if a journal had IF in early years but lose it in recent years, only the publications in years with IF will be considered. For e.g. AFR J BIOTECHNOL had IF in 2008, so any publication in this journal in 2008 will be considered by PCST for IF but any publication in this journal in 2014 when the journal had no IF will not be considered by PCST for IF.

For this reason, many publications in journals such as, in Pak J Zoology, JPMA, The Journal of Chemical Society of Pakistan published in early years are not accepted by the system.