This research note discusses the relationship of impact factors (IFs) and journal rankings in tourism. The present conceptual paper contributes to this line of research by commenting on the (un)suitability of using IFs and citations for ranking tourism journals, and aims to offer novel and constructive suggestions to academics in the field. Limitations of using IFs in ranking tourism journals have been examined, which include unintended negative impact induced by extensive use of IFs, possible inaccurate assessment of the paper's quality, and incomparability of IFs between tourism journals and mainstream business journals. Implications were offered to address the limitations of paper assessment based on journal ranking. Specifically, universities should not use impact factor as the sole measurement to judge journal quality. Other ways of measurement (e.g., peer-assessment) would also be a good indicator.