Ivica,

Your question is a bit of a 'chicken and the egg' situation i.e. which one comes first - high IF or high citation? The fact is that they are often directly correlated. High impact journals are measured as high impact due to their overall 'academic' community standing and, subsequently, their own citation rate. Individual's who publish in these journals are more likely to see their work cited - even if their work is not excellent quality. Being published in the journal becomes a 'badge of honour' for the author. They have bypassed the reviewers and editors. If dramatic changes are requested - then they are often needed. The author has the opportunity for rebuttal if they do not agree with the requested changes.

My advice to all researchers - new and not-so-new - is to aim for your 'highest' target journal and have a list of 'reserves' slightly lower each time. One expects good quality review from higher impact journals (although this is not always the case) and this serves as useful modification for the next-ranked journal and a higher probability of success.

Ivica,

Your question is a bit of a 'chicken and the egg' situation i.e. which one comes first - high IF or high citation? The fact is that they are often directly correlated. High impact journals are measured as high impact due to their overall 'academic' community standing and, subsequently, their own citation rate. Individual's who publish in these journals are more likely to see their work cited - even if their work is not excellent quality. Being published in the journal becomes a 'badge of honour' for the author. They have bypassed the reviewers and editors. If dramatic changes are requested - then they are often needed. The author has the opportunity for rebuttal if they do not agree with the requested changes.

My advice to all researchers - new and not-so-new - is to aim for your 'highest' target journal and have a list of 'reserves' slightly lower each time. One expects good quality review from higher impact journals (although this is not always the case) and this serves as useful modification for the next-ranked journal and a higher probability of success.

Pressure of "publish or perish" practice often defines journals. It gives the advantage to quantity over quality. That is what happens in academia. In research institutions is a bit different.

Having that in mind, I do still agree with dear Dean Whitehead 's advice:

" My advice to all researchers - new and not-so-new - is to aim for your 'highest' target journal and have a list of 'reserves' slightly lower each time. One expects good quality review from higher impact journals (although this is not always the case) and this serves as useful modification for the next-ranked journal and a higher probability of success."

Ivica, as a young researcher your chances of publication in high IF are slim unless you are savvy and co-author with someone of academic standing. For citations in this case I suggest aim lower and work your way up to higher IF gaining more citations as you progress. Try open access or rethink. Should you first be going for high downloads that will longer term possibly lead to higher citations?

I would suggest a combination of both types of journals.

You can submit initially to high IF journal, if not suitable then go for Plan B

Eventually both will give you citations depending on their additional information to the literature .

There are four factors to Consider When Deciding Between an Open Access or Traditional Journal:

1- Visibility

2- Cost

3- Prestige

4- Speed

So, It is according to the researcher situation whether to publish in the journals with high impact factors or publish just good papers !

HIgh citation score will be available only on number of readers and it is possible only in publication in high impact factors journal having large reader groups.

I can see that such considerations are increasingly important. Still I recommend to consider as well the research undertaken and identification of journal where to publish according to reaching the best audience in a particular field, regardless citations or IF.

Hi every one,

I think it depends on your conditions and individual norms. If you are under pressure to publish and are an early career, go for lower IF journals. If you believe your paper is so rich and can contribute significantly to the science, choose journals with good readership of your filed no matter what is the IF. There are weak journals with high IF and vice versa.

I do not intent to digress from the main discussion question. However, I felt a need to bring out a new perspective here.

If an article is of very high quality, researchers in and around the topic of interest will find their way to get to the article regardless of where they are published. But will they cite the said article is a different question altogether. Yes, if they are published in a high impact/quality journal. If not, the ideas gets taken without due recognition.

This is an open question. Do we all cite all the papers that we read in the process of writing a paper? I don't. Because I can't cite them all and have a very long reference list.

Now, do we actually read (fully) all the articles that are in the reference list. ALL....

We don't (lets be truthful). Why is it that way?

Now we are getting back to the point. Its always a brownie point if we can show the editors/reviewers/readers that we refer to those articles published in top journals in order to write our paper(when we have actually read only the abstract or at most skimmed through the write-up that goes way above your head).

To encapsulate, if you want your article to be cited and given due recognition, publishing in high impact/quality journals is very important.

Please don't forget to recommend the answer if you found it useful.

I do recommend the following article. Excellent.

PUBLICATIONS IN ACADEMIC RESEARCH: PUBLISH WITH A ‘PURPOSE’ AND NOT JUST IN THE FEAR TO ‘PERISH’

Each scientific publication is an important milestone in a researcher’s career and growth in their research career is often assessed by number and quality (as judged by the impact factors of publishing journal) of publications. ‘Publish or Perish’ is a fact that known to everyone working in basic and biomedical science today. To publish a number of articles at a very early stage (during Ph.D.), however, cannot be a direct way to measure one’s ability and interest to do research later in time. Yet this is the only way to survive in science later in time as most of the research fellowships and grants are offered to base on the number of articles in total. This notion has become a very clear message to me with my own experience in research and after talking to hundreds of colleagues from four different labs at three different European universities during the last eight years. The continuous demand to publish is creating a system in academic research where publications are put on the top of everything in research rather the progress and advancement of knowledge in science and betterment of the society. To understand publication-biased system, it is very important to know the different stages of researchers in their career at the university or in research institutes...

https://www.euroscientist.com/publications-in-academic-research-publish-with-a-purpose-and-not-just-in-the-fear-to-perish/

Spend more time in learning through reading and collaborating with the global leaders (individuals as well as institutes) in your scholarship. You will always be ahead of curve no matter how research excellence is defined in future.

I like your argument Ljubomir Jacić , Publish with purpose

I doubt that there is a universal answer to this question. Let me just point out that it may happen that a paper with important results in a good journal has only a small number of citations, e.g. because it rules out a certain avenue of research rather than opening up a new direction.

Surely better and more useful article is more important than impact factor Ehsan Zarei

The validity of the scientific journal does not determine the quality of your work.

The publication of articles in journals depends on many factors, some of which have no scientific aspect.

For example, journal editors and reviewers may be influenced by the brand of the university or the names of individuals or others with different opinions on the same scientific paper.

As a result, good and useful scientific work will be read in any way and will help the process of scientific development.

Interestingly, many Nobel Prize winners have not published their influential articles necessarily in highly acclaimed journals.

So, young scientists pay attention to the quality of scientific work.

Ali Maher

Publications in a journal with impact factor is of course of higher value. the reviewers associated with those journals are most of the time good researcher and have a say in the research circle. and you dont improve if you havent presented your work before good reviewers.

The three life stages of an academic author by Chris Smith

Early career researchers (ECRs) need help tackling the psychological barriers they have to writing and publishing...

Mid-career scholarly authors need more holistic support to manage their time better – in and outside of the university ...

Late-career academics want to leave a legacy and want more freedom to write books ...

http://email.europascience.com/files/amf_europa_science/project_26/RIaug19_Web.pdf

Ideally, publishing in a high IF peer-reviewed journal is the obvious goal of most researchers. But not all researches are of the top quality. So you must select a few potential lower ranked journal for these less quality work. In my country, "scientific score" of one researcher for getting annual academic promotion is computed from both 1) his/her H-index, and 2) his/her total citation score.

Nicely answered by all experts till now.

I would like to add that, irrespective of impact factor and academic score, we need to focus on quality writing which could directly or indirectly serve our mother nature and mankind's sustenance.

Though IF is very important

Sometimes, the Authors / Editors may be biased which may affect the Quality of the Article

A friend @Archibong Felix published in a Medical Journal we applaud for her effort in her indexing, however, many have berated the Quality of the Publication

You may wish to read the attached article for more information and assessment of Quality of paper and Journal bearing in mind that the Journal is now indexed in SCImago, SCOPUS, etc:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338740865_Medical_Law_Exploring_Doctors'_Knowledge_on_the_Laws_regulating_Clinical_and_Medical_Laboratories_in_Nigeria

Your assessment shall be highly appreciated

Good morning

In my opinion, I write for all magazines that I can.

For me to learn and to know is for every body and all levels

Many students doe not access to Elsevier or SCOPUS for example, Universities are not that rich to contract that systems.

It is like you as professor only will teach to a group of people.

I teach to all social class in the same quality

I believe also in open resources

Ingrid Garcia

In my University, publishing in high impact factor journals is a condition for promotion to a higher level, especially for moving to the professorial cadre. Publishing quality papers in good journals ultimately advance one's academic career - you get noticed by experienced researchers who may invite you for collaborative projects - you also get noticed by institutions, government agencies who may invite/recommend you for appointments etc.

I need publishing article in high IF journals to fill the condition for increase lprofessional level.

I think all journals with high IF is the best for publishing a paper.