Now a day many journals claim having impact factor like SCI, SCI extended, Global impact factor (GI) and Universal impact factor (UI). How these can be identified and which impact factor is the real one and why? What is the criteria of being a real impact factor. It is unfortunate that even in scientific research, cheating and fraudulent work is in an increasing trend for business purpose. How the scientific community can get rid of all these business oriented companies, journals and institutes lacking quality research?
There are different methods for calculating impact factors, some taking into account the discipline or scope of the journal, and there may be reasons to consider an impact factor that accounts for citations in journals in your specific area of study, and other reasons one might wish to reach a broader range of researchers.
An important consideration is who it is you want to read your paper, and for what purpose. Is it important that your paper be read widely by those who are not necessarily publishing research, or is it preferable that the concepts be discussed and refined by your peers?
In either case it is better to go with a reputable journal that may be less vulnerable to fraudulent research, though certainly not immune. What journals do our collleagues read and respect? What journals have provided the literature you relied on in your research? Those might be initial things to consider. Then, for newer journals, are they from a reputable publishing house? If you go to a scientific congress in your field, what publishers have booths or exhibits for you to peruse?
Thank you Thomas Babcock for your valuable comment. I agree indeed we must go for those journals having broader readers spectrum, but most of the reputable journals are out of the access of larger spectrum of readers and confined to only the members or to those who have paid for subscription, again the common readers have no access to these high impact journals.
A lot of journals are having an open access policy for online versions of the article. I have had a policy of opting for this whenever it is offered--I do this for all manuscripts, not just those I would hope to have a much wider readership, so that I am not showing bias toward some. There is a fee, of course, but that is essentially taking care of the copyright access costs for the readers.
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