Hi,

I do not think that a book chapter receives, academically, more points (it is not considered a better product), but from my experience, it is cited more since books on Google Scholar have usually more citations than papers. Eventually, adding these citations to the total number of citations improves the academic position of the faculty member. So, actually, indirectly, a book chapter helps gain more  credit in a curriculum vitae.

Assuming we talk about non-predatory publishing venues. This very much would depend on an institution's policy regarding academic publishing, and also on sensibilities in each academic field.

Some universities value journal articles, especially those published in ISI- A&HCI- & SCOPUS-indexed journals. Others give same weightage to book chapters as to journal articles, if the former are indexed in these databases. 

In some disciplines (e.g., history) academics tend to put a high premium on books rather than on journals.

In short, there are many considerations and subtleties.

Yes, I agree with Larisa that the answer really depends on the policies of your institution.  Some may not even have a formal hierarchy, so the value of a publication may be more subjective.

Thank you for the answers Avishag Gordon, Larisa Nikitina, Michael W. Marek.

In the process of developing your portfolio as a researcher and scholar, it is positive indeed.

I am interested in this question. My university put similar scores on both. I'm quite curious about the difference between ISSN and ISBN referring to the Dibakar Pal. Personally books are more prestigious in creating a good profile.

At our university, a book chapter counts the same for tenure as a peer reviewed article. Avishag is right however, in that in the long run the book chapter is probably going to get more citations if for no other reason that it will have a larger dissemination in libraries and in the classroom.  

Hi All, i do agree that academically, at least in my area (CompSc, IT, InfSys) AND  in New Zealand universities, book chapters do not count for  much-mostly because they are often repeat publications of articles already published.  However, book chapters do add to the CV in general. Regarding citations, i doubt it very much that a book chapter will get you  more more. For example, if i find something of interest in an electronically published book, i will look for related  journal article and more, and normally cite these rather then the book. In other words , i may use the book as a starting point for a deeper search rather than as a knowledge source.  There are exceptions, of course.

I think that besides the rules of the institution, it really depends on the type of the research. If there is large research work done by different researchers or research teams, it is really worth to present such research in a book. However just publishing a chapter which only formally is related to other chapters in a book is really not better option that publishing in good peer reviewed journal, because of peer review quality. However in life could happen situations when you need to publish your work at least as a book chapter if by some reasons you cannot do that with good journal. Of course even in such case predatory publishers like Lambert should never be chosen. More or less representative list of good book publishers is presented by SENSE. Publishers of all categories mentioned by them (even in E) are not bad.

@Ivan Kovalets, Thank you for the valuable reply. How to select the publishers for a book. Could you share a few words on it.

I believe that it depends on the quality of the journal and the quality of the book.

A journal classified Q1 has more weight then a book chapter.

As mentioned previously, some books are not peer reviewed! That is why a well reputed journal has more weight.

Books and therefore book chapters last longer. The book will be in the university library for decades. Some professors will not allow students to use resources such as journal articles that are more than 5 years old, but do not place the same restriction on books. I have written both. At my university both count for promotion and tenure.

I recently published in a journal recently. The same journal requested me to publish my work as a book chapter. Is it worth doing it?

I really agree that the idea of journals and book chapters is quite interesting and valuable in the contexts of enriching one's profile /CV/. However, I don't believe that the concept of repeating works which have been published in the journal already and incorporating in book chapters as well. I thought that we shoukld not repeat the same work for readers of interest.

I agree that publish in journal better than book chapter because it peer review.

Yes, you can add it to your CV but from my side it is recommended to publish your work in journals rather than book chapter.

I recently published a book chapter which went through peer-review and the chapter has a separate DOI number. So I think it varies between publishers. You should check this with publisher/editor before start writing.

Book chapters also peer-reviewed and have doi.

In my opinion,

1. There are situations where weightage is only for JOURNALS.

When it is about chapters, only the very good quality peer-reviewed ones are of value. this usually takes 6 months to two years. Journal publication time is comparatively less. (I remember experts quoting their number of publications mentioning articles and not chapters).

2. If we have to focus on the much-spoken citation index, the probability for journal articles (open access) is more. Chapters have less open access type.

3. Journal has limitations to page numbers, a chapter is more detailed and quite long. So when you want to make a record of all the information collected on that theme, you can choose a chapter (resembling subject books and chapters)

Additionally, if your writing is specific and deep - chapter writing is good.

Eg: Sustainable Textiles (broad area)

Whereas journals are more segment-based

Eg. Banana as a sustainable textile material (specific)

4. Rather than writing a chapter, one can publish a book after get the content to its best shape and quality and publishing with a good publishing house like Woodhead Publishing House. It is a little more work, but you can contribute, promote it, write a revised edition and you will be more satisfying to know, you have contributed to the existing knowledge.

It is in my humble opinion, hope it helps.

My best wishes

Dr. Aishwariya

I agree with the opinion of Adrien Trad .

It depends on the quality of the journal or book. If the book is indexed it will have weightage but generally journals are given preference.

If journal article weighs more, can an author send his published book chapter to a journal?

Hi,

I intended to answer that a journal paper and a book chapter have the same weight, but observing the data, it seems that if citations are considered, a book chapter is cited more than a research paper.

I am in opinion that research papers should be published in peer-reviewed journals and review papers should be published as book chapters with reputable publishers. Be aware from predatory journal and book publishers. However, chapters are generally less citable than review papers.

Not as it will get low citation

Not as it will get low citation

No, as all credits depend on citation as we know book chapter gets low citation so it will not add any credits

Hi,

A book chapter is actually a type of article, published in a book, but probably not subject to peer reviewing, most of the time. Nevertheless, on Google Scholar, this type of publication gains many citations. In subscription databases the number of book chapter citations is lower than that of a peer reviewed paper.

Peer-reviewed indexed journals are always given better weightage than the book chapters. The reasons are 1. Book Chapters are rarely peer-reviewed 2. The authenticity of book publishers is always a question mark being it is commercially oriented 3. Citing the book chapters by researchers is very rare by the researchers since it takes much more time than reading the journal papers 4. Books are not updated with the time since it is written by one or two authors whereas, journals papers do change with the latest times, though written by many others

In my opinion, I go for journal publication rather than a book chapter. More higher impact of the journal more value your CV. Most of the book chapter is not indexed in Scopus or WoS. The true story, my friend got a lecturer job because of a published Q2 journal. Sharanya Manoharan

I feel there should be mixtures of research, review articles and book chapters in the ratio of 10:5:1 respectively in your resume. Book chapters in reknown publishers matters a lot coz they are peer-reviewed. But I agree with you all that book chapters carry less citations but also believe that outstanding book chapter give more honour.

Hi,

I think that , measuring by the number of citations to a book chapter compared with the number of citations received by a paper, there is no real difference between the two types of publications. It depends on the year of publication and the subject covered. Book chapters are not always indexed in bibliographic databases.

My research paper has already been published in a journal. Can this be published as a Book Chapter with other publishers? Is it legal in India?

I believed that books published in high scholastic journal publishers like Elsevier, Springer, Tylor, and Francis, Wiley, DeGrunter, Web of science, and CRC press have the potential to project your research compared to other @watery publishers.

Naaaa. You actually get more credit by publishing in a research journal. Journal articles undergo more rigorous peer review than books. Moreover, claims on research breakthroughs are rather sourced from journals than books; and perhaps, even more reliable.

Unfortunately these days so many publishing outfits ask to publish as book chapters, what already exists in journal prints. I find this rather absurd and a waste of time; or perhaps a theft of intellectual property or a breech of copyright restrictions.

I am sure these guys find it difficult to source for original book chapters. If they did their homework, that wouldn't be an issue.

I believe every effort of humans to contribute for the sake of the development of life is praiseworthy. I have grown up by going through various authentic book chapters. I found most of the journal papers fail to answer questions like Why, What, Where, When, etc. Therefore, good researchers should be limitless. They should contribute by writing journal papers, conference papers, book chapters, and posters, etc.

I strongly agree with Dr. Anani Anthony

Dear Sharanya Manoharan

The academic performance index carries low marks i.e. 10 for a book chapter as compared to journal publication i.e. 15

Hi,

It seems that the value of a book chapter and a journal papers is the same for a CV, nevertheless, book chapters are usually less cited than journal papers.

Sunil Chouhan the answer is no to your question. You cannot publish the same article in two places, sir. Any article which is indexed in Scopus will be recognised worldwide. Moreover, If you want to get special attention then publish it in SCI journals.

After the article is revised, it can be published as a book chapter. However, an article published in a journal with a high impact factor can have higher effects than a book chapter.

Sunil, I agree with Adhithiya. You can not not publish the exact same article in two places. You may or may not even own the copyright as the journal may own it. You can re-write and enhance the article. Then use it as a book chapter. But there must be extensive revision, you can't just copy the original article.

book chapter is more worthy than journal

In Indian context, both research paper and book chapter have weightage. However, the points of book chapter are restricted (max 5 points) and that of a journal article depends on the impact factor. It goes up to 30.

Journal articles have more impact on the academic performance index as compared to book chapter in india, the author can aubmit articlea to reputated book chapter which are indexed in scopus or sci database but the impact will be less. Lastly author who what to cite the data can cite from both the sources i.e., book chapter , journal so researchers have not to worry for citations.

Yes, research article is more weightage. The chapter of the book is a global description of a subject, but the research article is point-by-point. Both are different from a scientific point of view.

The book chapter is good to keep your profile diverse but in term of citation and credit journal article has more credit.

Each of the journal papers and the book chapters has special value, only the article could get more citations and be easier to access than the book.

No

both the book chapter and article have the same impact but the book chapters are not freely available compared to a article. So the no of citations are more for the article.

Journal has more credit but chapter makes your profile more diversified. But if it is a communication ( oral presentation ) even in indexed conference the chapter has more credit.

Generally the opposite, but it does depend upon the discipline. Until recently most disciplines considered journal papers to be the gold standard, because they would have been peer reviewed, whereas it was pretty much unknown what standards were applied in book publishing. Recently there have been many scandals surrounding sloppy or nonexistent peer review processes in various journals, so perhaps we shall see book chapters gaining more prestige.

I agree with Sze_Yen Tan, the Journal article is more weighty.