I don't know. I do know that "impact factors" are important to some, especially to some funding agencies, but I think the importance is exaggerated, and that a too strong emphasis will eventually degrade all of science. The impact factor is NOT necessarily a measure of how good a journal is, and I think we all know that.

The most important thing should be to publish GOOD research, first and foremost, and not concentrate on WHERE it is published. Except that you should publish where you know that the right people will find it. Publishing mediocre papers just to get a long list of papers in ones cv is a waste of ones talents. Writing only a few papers that actually provide answers to important problems must in the long run be more important and better than to publish a lot of mediocre work. Remember that one day you will be asked by your grandchildren to explain what you did when you were a scientist ... :-) You need to be able to show that you did something to be proud of.

I don't know. I do know that "impact factors" are important to some, especially to some funding agencies, but I think the importance is exaggerated, and that a too strong emphasis will eventually degrade all of science. The impact factor is NOT necessarily a measure of how good a journal is, and I think we all know that.

The most important thing should be to publish GOOD research, first and foremost, and not concentrate on WHERE it is published. Except that you should publish where you know that the right people will find it. Publishing mediocre papers just to get a long list of papers in ones cv is a waste of ones talents. Writing only a few papers that actually provide answers to important problems must in the long run be more important and better than to publish a lot of mediocre work. Remember that one day you will be asked by your grandchildren to explain what you did when you were a scientist ... :-) You need to be able to show that you did something to be proud of.

Good findings are good findings, regardless where they are published. Thus, publishing in low impact journals does not affect the quality of research findings. Anyhow, there is another dimension to this question. Publishing is low impact journals can be affected by the number of researchers who read the article.

I agree with Prof. Mahfuz. Research is meant to add in our existing understanding in a particular field. Some of the high impact factor journals make the entire process so tiresome and difficult for researchers that they prefer other journals. also in some cases it has been found that the final published copy is almost entirely different from the original manuscript just because the journal didn't find it as per their norms. Which is fundamentally wrong. A good research will always get recognition irrespective of the journal it has been published with.

We should not pay too much attention to the impact factor alone, a good researcher with genuine work and honesty will always be rewarded irrespective of the journal where it is published. I am of the opinion the research work should be published in a reasonably  good journal  and will NOT undermine the research findings.

No, I believe that the content of a paper is scientific and important besides the name of a journal. But one effect is unavoidable, you will not be so fast and well known with your results if you choosed the "wrong" publisher.

Not necessarily, if the journal concerned has high readability. Then more people will read your work. But definitely in the high scholarly world, people go by the brand of the journal where you have published. Also, these scholars may not be really reading the low impact journal, as we all make our choices in view of paucity of time at our disposal. That is also an issue. Ideally, if one has a high class paper acceptable to peers, one must focus on publishing in a high impact journal. There could be some situations where the timing of the publication might be an issue; then the decision to publish in low-impact journal could be OK.

In my view, what makes the impact is the quality of the work not the journal; I also think that platforms like RG help good works be disseminated across a broad community. 

A hidden fact is "when you go up for tenure and promotion, you are assessed according to the ranking of the journal". Therefore, publishing in a low impact, low quality journal can negatively affect your research career, whether in applying for tenure or advancing through the professional ranks. Low impact and/or low quality publication could, therefore, compromise your credibility and reputation, i.e., It would compromise your standing and progress in your career.

I do not think readers will be affected by the place a finding is posted. Knowledge is knowledge wherever it is obtained and placed. What matters is the content and vitality of the result. I assure you that there are more active researchers who stopped sending their results not only to high impact factor journals but completely abandoned the notion of journals because of their behaviors, treating scientists as naive in their fields and like sales person of their works. Prominent mathematicians of old times used to refuse sending their results to journals because of fear of rejection and discouragement but instead they accumulated their findings in their homes which later people found their works not in journals but in their old reading rooms.  

Impact factors are important for modern careers but they don't totally adapt to foreign language writing.

I wonder which impact score old time's classic fundamental scientists such as Hypocrates ou Copernicus, would get, if they were to be published ipsis verbis, nowadays, or if any modern scientific journal would accept their papers. Nevertheless, they proceeded with their scientific careers...

Galen sold his scientific papers, by the leaf on popular fairs.

Quality of research stays the same wherever it is published. But reach makes the sense here for which we have to publish our work in high impact journals.

Hi Dr Jumana Saleh;My opinion is a BIG NO. I have published my big amount of research even in journals which have no impact factor that to in my mother language in Hindi. This work may not be available for international platform but the target ed audience/clients were farmers of India and line department people as it was all related to agriculture. It was taken very well and published work was awarded also at the National level. So I am proud of to publish it in Hindi. Therefore I do not feel that publishing in low impact journals/ zero impact journals undermine mine research findings. I am fully satisfied. It is my personal opinion.Thanks

I am in total concurrence with fellow RG Sarwan Kumar Dubey, one has to see the application of the research and not just the publication in the high IF journal.The application may be in any field like Health,Agriculture,Infrastructure, Community development,Education,etc.,

Thank you for the great comments and answers. Yes I agree, good science is good science wherever published. 

Sarwan Kumar Dubey I agree with U Sir, application and utilization of research it important not the impact factor.

How do you define ¨low impact factor  journals? How much is low and viceversa?

I have one very interesting note in this regard. In developing countries, some times top ranked journals are not cited by the researchers, but lower ranked journal's articles are more preferred. As they are easily available. Open access articles are always get more citations. This is because of their reach to the researchers only.

Dear @Jumana Saleh. You said "good science is good science wherever published."  If you search in the Google for the phrase "blacklisted journals" in your own field or in general then you probably won't recommend to others "wherever" published is OK. If you read some of the stories about these journals you will realized how embarrassing they caused to those published there. I am not going to introduce any such journal here because it is not a proper act. If interested about it you can send me your email I will send link for further information.

N.B.: A journal is black listed journal if it contains too much scam and fraud. Governments publish a regular update of black listed journals. In Iran we have such a list. Surprisingly some of these journals even have impact factors!

Although publishing in low impact journals does not affect the quality of research findings, it is better for a researcher to publish in a high impact factor journal.

Dear Mahfuz,

could you please give an argument for your opinion?

Dear Mahmoud Omid Sir, As here we are discussing about  low impact Journal not blacklisted journal or fraud journal. It does not mean or prove that if a journal have low impact then it may get blacklisted. or it has more chance to get blacklisted. That (fraud) is totally a different issue and is not acceptable in research and real life.  Some of the reputed journal used to have low impact , then what does it mean? 

Dear Hanno,

Good methodology used and good results reached are still good whether you publish the research in a high or in a low impact factor journal. I think that a high impact journal can help increasing the visibility of the article, but it cannot improve the results or the findings.

Anyhow, for an article to be more visible, it is advisable to publish in a high impact factor journal.

Dear Mahfuz,

that´s exactly my opinion (see my upper statement).

Most of authors wish that their paper should be read by community, some time your work published in low impact factor is not noticed by colleague researchers. Another problem is trust, sometime your colleagues do not believe your work if published in low impact factor. This is true that good work is always important it does not matter where you publish it. This is also true if your work is not noticed by community than it will not make impact or your contribution will go unnoticed.    

I agree with @Mahfuz Judeh it is always better to publish in journal having high impact factor journal. Visibility of your research is as important as work itself because you are not doing research for yourself instead you are working for community. Before I send a manuscript, I look two points i) target users it means my papers should be read by most of my readers (users to whom I wish to address), ii) quality of papers published in journal (mostly it is related to impact factor). We need to understand why a journal have high impact factor it is because it is read and cited by more researchers.   Thus one should prefer to publish in high IF if possible.

Thanks Dr Mohd Qasim, I have given a very true picture of my research work. Regards.

Dear Dr.  Dubey  It is our duty to publish our works for both the national and international audiences. Actually, many of my good papers are in Farsi language. I can write and explain much better and faster in my mother tongue language. I dont call them low impact journals or low quality journals. In fact they are very high quality journals and sometimes I have to answers upto 5 referees and make a lot of revision and corrections before it is accepted for publications.  Actually I have more difficulty dealing with the journal selection criteria, imposing sanctions by some editors, producing state of art, ...., and  language is also a challenge for writing internationally.  So how should I do it?

When it matters to me to publish some of my results in international journals for getting much more visibility, attention, recognition, feedback, ..., it is obvious to look for top-tier journals of my choice. I know that the time lags in conventional publishing (journal with high IF), with the limited accessibility of articles, and the fact that many of them have a low acceptance rate, can undermine my’ attempts to maximize the impact of my work. But the open access (OA) and low quality journals have certain drawbacks too: payments have to be made by the author, they are of low impact and/or low quality, and top-tier journals of my choice are not OA and/or do not permit repository deposit, etc.  

I hope I explained the very true picture of my publishing strategies, how I select the journal for my next publication, and why I am more cautious (think twice) before I submit my next manuscript. ..

We also need to understand, how readers' opinions or ratings of papers' standard actually get formed. Mostly, the stature of the journal (impact factor)  where it is published is a determining factor. In many cases, people do not look at critically when they know the worth of your paper; they go by where it was published. Everyone does not read or study it like a hardcore academic or a referee would do. Therefore, the impact factor of the journal definitely should guide the author about where to publish.

According to Tijssen (2003) publishing strategies are meant to improve the impact of good quality research. Using these techniques to upgrade CVs or boosting research performance ratings of research groups is a dangerous tactic.

According to Bourne (2005) it is better to publish one paper in a quality journal than multiple papers in lesser journals. Try to publish in journals that have high impact factors; chances are your paper will have high impact, too, if accepted.

So where to publish? Here are some simple rules to check out:

• Quality
• Editorial board
• Acceptance rate
• Time to publication
• Journal circulation
• Visibility

Bourne, P.E. (2005). Ten simple rules for getting published. PLoS Comput Biol 1(5): e57. DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010057

Tijssen, R.J.W. (2003). Scoreboards of research excellence. Research Evaluation, 12(2): 91-104.

yes publishing in low impact journal undermines your findings. as a researcher i prefer looking for papers from my interest area in journals with high impact factor not because of their reputation but because i strongly feel that there is a difference in the quality of papers published in journals with high impact factor. as a researcher i would never settle for a low impact factor journal for publishing a high quality research. if its quality is good i will prefer getting it published in top journal only.

Publishing in good journal really makes difference in quality of research. Good quality always have good impact. Even low impact factor journal do not look quality of papers meticulously.

 Dear all

Good quality papers do not loose quality when are published in low impact journals.

The diference between a high and low impact journal is that in the former, most papers are good quality eventhough they publish also low quality papers, while in the latter is viceversa. A GOOD QUALITY PAPER IS ALWAYS A GOOD QUALITY PAPER EVERYWHERE!

Best regards to everybody

The quality of a good findings remain the same regardless of where it is published. However, publishing a good findings in a low impact journal affect your recognition and visibility of your work.

Findings published in journals with high impact factor not necessarily mean that they are originality or approved research. some of the research published in these journals is not until valuable.