During the revision process of manuscripts, many times both reviewer and editors suggest that the manuscript is more suitable for a lower impact journal of the same publishing house. If there is some problem with the science and quality of the manuscript then why are you recommending to a lower impact journal??
A journal that achieved high impact factor is assumed to keep the level high. High level is associated with high citation. Therefore the editor must accept papers that (hopefully) be cited by many - i.e. which are interesting for a wider circle of readers. At the journal, where I work as excutive editor we reject more than 80% of the incoming papers. Sometimes even good ones, where no citation can be expected.
Subhrajyoti - this is becoming a more common practice between some of the larger publishing houses i.e. Wiley, Elsevier. I suppose that they assume that if a certain journal, in their catalogue, has rejected a manuscript - that a higher IF journal will do the same. It's probably more realistic to suggest a lower impact journal. Of course, it is only a recommendation - and usually based around the scope of the topic area to try and suggest topic-related alternatives.
Dear Gyorgy,
The expectation of citation you referred to is interesting. Could you please elaborate on the measurement of such expectation. I mean how do you estimate whether a paper could be cited or not (even if it is a good paper). I am really interested in understanding this point. Thanks.
Dear Prof. Gyorgy Banhegyi
Thank you for sharing with us the information.
So it is obvious that journals always look for guaranteed citations. That means irrespective of quality and described science, they will surely get citations from well known authors of that particular field. This biasness is always be there in the quest of guaranteed citations of the paper.
Especially for big publishing houses it is desirable to keep the submitted papers within their house and therefore the editors are encouraged to suggest transfer to other journals of the same publisher. For a new journal of course the science is not different but the scope usually is and therefore a paper which is rejected in one setting (scope, quality, emerging topics) might be well suited for acceptance in another journal. Typically (but not always as e.g. for scope issues) the suggested journal is lower ranked in terms of IF.
Dear Colleagues, the decision on the expected citation is based on two factors: one is the general personal experience of the editorial board members (admittedly, subjective), the other is our actual experience collected with the articles published in our journal (Express Polymer Letters). This latter information is, however, confidential.
The differences may concern specific scientific disciplines, fields of science, specific issues in which they specialize in specific scientific journals. However, in terms of formal requirements and editorial standards, there are usually no or slight differences. The differences may also concern the scientific rank, the level of citation, readership, recognition of a given title of a scientific journal in the world of science. Therefore, the differences may also concern the level of the Impact Factor.
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Publishing