A good impact factor varies significantly by academic field, but general benchmarks exist:

• An impact factor of 10 or higher is considered remarkable or excellent, though such high values are rare and usually limited to top journals in certain fields

• An impact factor around 3 is generally regarded as good and respectable in many disciplines

• The average impact factor across journals is typically less than 1, reflecting that most journals have relatively low citation rates

• In some fields like biochemistry, a good impact factor might be between 2 and 4, while 5 to 8 is great, and above 9 is excellent

• Impact factors must be compared only within the same subject category because citation practices vary widely across disciplines. For example, a score of 2 might be excellent in physics but low in experimental material sciences

• Prestigious journals like Nature have impact factors around 69 (in 2021), illustrating the upper extreme of the scale

In summary, a "good" impact factor depends on the field but generally:

• Above 10 = excellent,
• Around 3 = good,
• Below 1 = average or low impact.

Always consider the journal’s subject area when evaluating its impact factor