In practice, many researchers try to publish their manuscripts in a high impact journal. Is it really justified? Should we ignore the low impact journals?
Dear Shankhadeep,
It all depends on the manuscript, first and foremost!
No, it is not justified, also from an ethical and human social point of view
Dear Shankhadeep,
It all depends on the manuscript, first and foremost!
Yes one should try a high impact journal first! If the article, it does not necessarily mean that its impact is as high as the impact factor the journal (it can be lower, higher or equal to it). But it is already an indication that the article could be a valuable contribution, since the peer review procedure for an article to be accepted in a high impact journal is, as a rule, more stringent!
Yes. Justified and fruitful, indeed. Journals with high IF , or in other word, top ranked journals are the ones publishing the state-of-the-art research works with high percentage of novelty and originality and wider audience. So we better try them first, then if rejected try lower ranked journals later on.
By the way, some good reasons for that are given in two similar questions asked already in RG (See the links below).
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_feel_sorry_that_you_have_published_articles_in_journals_that_have_no_impact_factor_and_are_not_ISI-indexed
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_worth_publishing_your_research_in_a_high_impact_journal
It is the content of a publication, not the journal, that makes a publication scientifically valuable. Publications in so-called low impact journals, can also be frequently cited.
My dear @Shankhadeep , I will be free to contribute by adding some fine threads which are related to yours. Many good answers and very rich discussions!
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_would_be_the_indicators_you_would_take_into_account_to_consider_publishing_in_a_scientific_journal
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_influence_of_Impact_Factor_IF_when_choosing_a_journal_to_send_a_manuscript
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_factors_that_you_take_into_consideration_before_submitting_your_manuscript2
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Publish_or_perish_Is_it_useful_to_publish_in_a_journal_without_an_impact_factor
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Where_do_we_stand_really_in_terms_of_research_publication_and_impact_factors
If the article is worth it (if it's good enough), you should try a high-impact journal as then, it may get a better chance to get noticed and, also, publishing in such journals improves your career chances. If it's not so good and you can't improve it enough (e.g. get better data), try journals with a low impact factor or those that don't have it but are in Scopus and/or EBSCO. Always avoid "pay & publish whatever trash" type of journals.
Social/cultural considerations
You might send articles to journals of countries that require more support from a scientific/education point of view, whatever the IF of the journal concerned. Article submissions strategies as part of aspects dealing with human sciences?
I think it depends on many factors. As my dear Marwan said that all depends on the manuscript,, first and foremost. It also depends on the researcher himself, some prefer to publish their manuscripts in a high impact journal, while others are indifferent.
If that is the case. Where would surgery journals rank? Mostly not high impact, but manuscripts valuable.
One should send his paper to a journal where at least one of the editors is an expert in the field of the research.
This anwer depends on multiple factors. If we invest time on research we want and we deserve to publish it on the highest impact journal possible. However, not always possible also for multiple reasons. What you publish, scope, sample, findings, implications, and particularly quality. As policy for many researchers if you not reached an acceptance in a high impact journal, you look a low one as second or third choice. This is usual. However, yes, at least the journal should be in a relevant database (SCI, Scopus, Medline).
Yes, it depends on your own needs. If the employer has asked the applicants to mention in the resume the impact factor of your publications, then you need a competitive impact factor. Because every applicant will come with his or her IF score. Likewise, in educational institutions, the faculty promotions, tenure, or funding for research, depend on the impact factor. The higher the impact factor, the better will be the chances of your success
The answer to this question also depends on whether you are working on a "hot topic" or not. If yes, IF may not be the decisive factor. It may be more important to publish as fast as possible, or in a journal, that you _think_ is not leaking information to other groups working on the same topic.
Most researchers know quite well where their article may fit. However, it's quite common to try "one size up" when submitting the manuscript. Some may do it more often than others...If the material presented in the manuscript is also "one size up" then it would be a good match indeed. If a researcher is doing some consistent work and publishes in journal(s) having the close impact factor, there is nothing wrong with it. Occasionally, he/she may be lucky and would generate a material that would justify publishing in a higher impact journal. Going up few points would be a great personal achievement. Some may go higher, some lower. It depends on the individual.
Perhaps, a comparison with working in a gym would be helpful. To have the progress one should always rely on his/her conditions and potentials and focus solely on the personal aspect. Looking at others may help a bit in the motivation but if you look for too long you're start loosing time and the focus, and fail.
We should try to identify and compass unfair editors and unfair reviewers of high and low impact journals. However, both are entitled to high-class manuscripts.
In my opinion, the most important is a high quality of our work (our paper). Secondary thing is the high impact of a selected journal. If your subject of research is popular, the high impact factor is relatively easy to obtain. Sometimes, much more important is open access (than high impact factor). However, a weak paper will be weak in journal with a high impact factor and without an impact factor. We have just a higher probability that a journal with a high impact factor will reject weak article.
Hi Shankhadeep, if the quality of the manuscript warrants a high impact publications, there is nothing wrong in submitting them in a high impact journal. If the manuscript quality is bad, no matter if the journal has a low impact factor (or even for that matter that a particular journal doesn't have any impact factor) it will get rejected anyways! I don't see anything wrong with it!
See carefully the people who are in the editorial boards of journals with low impact or no impact factors, how many editors have published their own articles in the journal in which they are editors. Mostly negligible, and they will be publishing in a high impact journals (that depends if they have a quality publication to submit).
One of the reason people want to publish good articles in a high impact journals, this means, proper recognition and citations. You don't want to publish a good work in a no impact or low impact journal and the results might not be taken too serious!
The good rule is, publishing in a pubmed / isi-indexed journals. This means that they will have an impact factor. Some highest impact factor journals are not listed in ISI. Many might not know this fact.
Secondly, publishing in a high impact factor, doesn't actually translate to highest citations. I have a paper which is cited over 500 times, is not the highest impact factor journal that I published. I would say quality of the paper is at most importance regardless of the impact factor of the journal!
Thirdly, having a good h-index speaks about quality of the individual and his publications. In the western world they are taken serious for consideration of promotions. You can see the details here (not sure if my links wil work)
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-D6JXfgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=MO90ZXkAAAAJ&hl=en
http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=MO90ZXkAAAAJ&hl=en
If the interpretation of the value of a publication in a low IF journal mainly depends on the IF, the readers do not truly understand the content of this publication, or cannot properly place the publication in the framework of the existing literature
Empathy expressed in manuscript submission strategies also involves 'to feel where to direct his article', or not?
Dear All,
I think manuscripts should be submitted in the most appropriate journals and not that with the highest IF.
Dear All,
Unfortunately, our friend, Marwan has been unjustly down-voted. I ask each of you - if possible – to up-vote his comment. Anonymous down-voters should became aware that this is a site of intelligent discussions.
It must have been honorary to be published in the journals with the highest IF. Let it be. The main aim of publication is to be read and appreciated by a lot of professionals.Nevertheless, among practice-oriented articles there are a lot of original and useful thoughts, too.Why not? "Who is searching human glory -this person is becoming far from God's glory". Manuscripts in the best journal like manuscripts in less popular journal may be forgotten, too.One of the main reasons to be published is wish to share your ideas, so that your ideas not to be stolen.
Thank you dear friend Andras--thank you so much, dear friends all. I have noticed that a couple times happen to me (I mean the down-votes) for which I have no logical or illogical explanation! To the down-voters I say that this is a forum of intellectual thought!
Dear Marwan,
I think we must tolerate this strange behaviour. For me you are up and not at all down. And if I want to contradict, I shall argue and not downvote.
I agree with most responses that if the quality of the manuscript warrants a high impact factor journals publication, We should aim for higher impact journals in our field. At the worst case (rejection:( ) ,we have at least good quality reviews to improve the research.
There are other factors to consider. Sometime students want a fast publication to get admission. in these cases, the authors opt a lower impact factor journals as the publication process are generally faster in these journals.
Dear Shankhadeep. I found another question on RG: "What is the significance of publishing a manuscript in a journal with high impact factor?" with good answers to your question: I am copying the best answer given there by Shweta Yadav for completeness::
Although each paper should be assessed upon its own merit yet IF, H- Index and other such indices have become the general standards for the measurement of a paper's worth. Publishing in a high IF journal definitely serves as an advantage as:
• They have wider audiences and hence better exposure and chances of citation for the papers.
• They receive a large no of papers for publications and have stricter standards of publication. Thus, the papers chosen for publication automatically get classified as the BEST.
• The IF gives an easily quantifiable measure to a scientist’s work as one cannot read all of their papers.
I agree that the content of the paper is of foremost importance and many a good papers have been published in journals with low or no IF. Yet with so many papers being published all over the world each year, IF and other indices do make you stand apart from the crowd.
Based on my experiences IF you can (able to) publish your work in a journal with high impact factor having high visibility, standards, etc, you would never recommend to others to publish their works in a pay & publish or predatory journals not even journals with low or zero IF .
See the RG link below for complete discussion:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_significance_of_publishing_a_manuscript_in_a_journal_with_high_impact_factor
It is much better to publish your researches in a high impact journal. and some times Doctors like to publish at the journals accredited by the scientific scientific research
No dear Shankhadeep. I believe we should not always look for publishing our manuscript in a high impact journal. The reason is that we have many other factors to look at, such as, speed of the reviewing process and if the journal is in the same focus as the manuscript.
That is right @Roland, we have to publish in domestic journals, regardless of IF. We have to take care about our native languages. Beside, good papers in a domestic journal could bring this journal to get some IF!
Yes, It is important to publish in domestic journals. Our graduate students are not proficient in English and We have sent a few articles to our national journals.
Surprisingly, the time taken in some national journals in my country is much longer than more respected international journals. A few are under review after 2.5 years. Not a good experience!
Dear Behrouz,
incredible, demotivating and destructing long review times for a young publisher.
Possibly it would be better to teach scientific english language instead of desperation.
Dear Hanno,
Iran has registered over 21000 articles on many remarkable international journals in 2013 Iran has ranked 20th in terms of science production in the world in 2013, according to the latest statistics released by Thomson Reuters. So, English is not a problem in Iran. Most scientists (academics as well as graduate students) in our university write their manuscript in English! We also have many journals indexed in ISI. Of course, as I mentioned in another place we have the duty to publish some of our works in our own language too. So we are active both locally and internationally
Dear all,
Good day,
Yes, It is important to publish in domestic journals but it is preferable to publish our researches in a high impact journal.
Regards
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Social Science
- Media
- Journalism