A "national publication" is by definition one whose main printed output is distributed within e.g. India. An "international publication" is one whose printed output is not limited mainly to one country. As you hint, national/international is a poor proxy for research quality. To answer your question, only 1. is a national publication.

In current scientific scenario the journal published in Thomson reuter Index Journals(Means having impact factor) are important. The term "National Publication" and "International Publication" are now not much important. Secondaly the researcher H index are calucalted for check their scienific ability.

Dr Chauhan, I agree with your comment that the scientific merit of a journal can be interpreted to an extent by its impact factor. However, SCI/JCR are not the only criterion since indexing in PUBMED/MEDLINE is also considered to be mandatory by funding and research agencies world over, in biological and biomedical/medical sciences.

Actually my query is regarding the breakup that is asked by funding agencies and research institutes in India regarding NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL publications with more preference being given to INTERNATIONAL publications. How can a journal like "J Med Food" with an impact factor of 1.4 be considered better than "Indian J Med Res" with an impact factor of 1.8....?

It is because the science policy of India tends to respect foreign publication more than national ones, i guess. It is not the question of scientometrics but that of science politics. It is similar to what i experience in my own country. This distinction is important when it comes to applying for grants from my government & scientific organizations, or for positions at national universities.

Dear Nair funding agencies and research institutes in India regarding NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL publications they ask but internally they consider impact factor as selection criteria, since they make rules 30-40 years ago for selection, but now days as number of journals increases day by day they short listed on the basis of impact factor of journal, so when you applying to any agency you clearly write impact factor. I am completely agree with Janos Toth.

Authorship, interest of readership, overall impact of your article, Collaborations, & Networking are some of the important points that are taken into consideration while publishing your scientific article. no matter of national or international journal.

@ Pradeep Deshmukh: Any publication in the field of biomedical science/medicine that is in a journal that is not covered by PUBMED/PUBMED CENTRAL or Thomson Reuter SCI/JCR is not a publication, but a blog, irrespective of the viewership of the journal or importance of the work that is published in it. This is because, such journals lack authenticity (regarding the work they actually publish).

Additionally, believing that INTERNATIONAL Vs NATIONAL publications don't make a difference is actually living in denial. They do make a difference in the ASIAN scenario (I cannot comment on the West as i haven't seen the scenario there firsthand).

@ Pradeep Deshmukh: the impact factor of journal always help in applying for project or job

As more and more open access journals are raising, sometimes it is difficult to identify original scientific scholarly journals with those pubishing virtually any submission with author high fees claiming to be peer-reviewed journals. Journal Impact Factors can help to deidce the quality of journals. However, publications should be directed towards journals which will be most read by audiences it is intended for.

A "national publication" is by definition one whose main printed output is distributed within e.g. India. An "international publication" is one whose printed output is not limited mainly to one country. As you hint, national/international is a poor proxy for research quality. To answer your question, only 1. is a national publication.

@Edson Moschim : Your viewpoint is correct for a researcher in Paris or New York, but my definitions were aimed at a researcher in India or New Zealand. So there is no accord, again pointing to the poverty of using this as a proxy for quality. Many journals unnecessarily prefix their journal title with the word "International" so that the bean-counters in foreign climes will give it more points.

1. National; 2. International and 3. International. Yes, some national journals may have high impact factors than international journals but sadly some organizations see them as low quality publications..but I guess the universities and research centers/organizations are slowly evolving to go beyond these discriminations..

@Vinod: your question is very important and Dear Chauhan your argument of internal preferences for IF is not correct from my personal experience. If IF is important then why regularly it is asked in various official questionnaires as how many papers are published in NATIONAL and how many in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL (read journals published in the West or to some extent in Japan). As far as circulation or communication among scientific community is concerned, I very often find references of papers published in India in International Journals not only by Indian researchers but also researchers of the countries where these International Journals are published. Anybody can verify it in his own field of specialisation. I believe in knowledge generation and publish my work in Indian Journals, while my juniors my present and past research students get their research published in high IF International Journals.

Publishing in your national journal can be easier, as you know the editors and they know you. If there is a publication delay you can bang on their doors! Publishing in _another_ country's national journal can be more difficult than publishing in an international journal.

@ Dr Kennedy: However, by this argument, the points 2 and 3 in my original question become NATIONAL publications.

In my view a journal article should be published where its intended readers will read the article. When the findings of an article are considered to be valuable to international audience or which can be replicated in similar settings it should be published in an International Journal where as articles with findings that is more generalized for a national interest should be published in a National Journal. However, we can not generalize that publishing in a International Journal is more prestigeous than National Journals as some National Journals contain high quality research that can also be accepted by many International Journals.

In this world of globalization, information technology and widespread internet facilities, every quality journal gets international repute. On the other hand, low quality journals cease to exist sooner or later. The universities and research centers/organizations will have to go beyond the discrimination of National and International. However, one point is important in this regard that when someone publishes work in National Journal, common peoples may think that the author may have been favored by the editor/scrutiny committee as both are likely to be friends or at least well known to each other. This perception by the public is not likely in case the when work of same person is published in a journal out of the country.

And here's a "false friend" for you. Until I looked it up now, I thought SIAM in the title meant published in Thailand! http://www.siam.org/journals/ Do the bean counters know that?

Nice discussion! But, why all the fuzz? As a researcher you have had this brilliant idea (or so you thought...), you have worked incredibly hard on proving your hypothesis (or, disproved) and now you want to subject it to scrutiny - your peers! You want their opinion. So why not submit your findings to the brightest around? The problem is: they have limited time so, they only scrutinize the top journals in their field - that is where you will get noticed! So, to rehash, go for the journal with the highest I.F. and if that is, as stated in option 1, the Indian journal - brilliant, I shall submit (my paper) to that journal!

Second point is, the real "brainies" have alert settings in their databases (in the Biomedical field, usually PubMed) so that when an article is published, anywhere in the world, containing the keywords on their specific field of interest, they are immediately alerted.

Problem with that is,for example, alas not all National journals appear in PubMed

This brings me to my last point - what is it that you really want: peer recognition? Yes, plenty will secretly admit. But, from the local peers? Submit your paper locally. From the brightest? Put your manuscript in front of the toughest jury - submit it to, whatever you wish to call it, the journal with the highest I.F.

Phew...

Since inception of journal ranking and impact factor calculation, the terms national and international publications are meaningless as far its worth is concerned. However for a journal published in any country, the article submitted from other country will be an international publication. Same is true for an author. Alternatively if a paper represent investigation a problem which is localized for the country from where the journal belongs may be termed as national publication. Whereas an article with widespread and global implications may be termed as international publication. But this classification just represent scope of research and not its worth.

Thanks Professors Edson, Feroz Khan and Nalam for the encouragement.

Thanks Prof. Ian for the encouragement.

My suggestion is that any Journal of International Repute must be categorized as International, whether the author belongs to the country from where the corresponding Journal is published or out of that country. International Repute may be defined on the basis of certain criteria such as Impact Factor, Numbers in a Volume and number of publications from foreign authors. The Journal not enjoying the status of International Repute must be categorized as National and Foreign, which are self-explanatory terms.

Yes, Linda Mcphee! a publication is to be called an international publication when the subject under study has been discussed in international perspective. On the other hand when the subject of the study is relevant to only some specific country then it might be called inland or national publication. I tried to categorize the Journals, but the question of this thread is about publication and not journal. Linda Mcphee is right to provide the relevant explanation. However, it must be realized that International Journal and National Journal are widely used terms, although such terminology is the tale of the era before information technology and internet facilities. In this modern age, every publication has its own identity and its link with some journal just seems a formality. In old ages the bound journals which were circulated, but now everyone picks specific publications from various journals relevant to his/her interest. That is why the terms International Journals and National Journals seem somewhat less meaningful than the terms international publication and national publication. The matter must be addressed seriously.

I think there is no single criteria or rule to make clear distinction between international and national publication, yet. All that matters is the worth of your work in terms of its wider acceptance and citation.

1. I feel that citation index of individual publication is always important than in which journal the article was published.

2. In the era of 'Go Green' e-journals, keeping them outside looks impractical.

3. Today's well established journals were born one day, passing through infancy, childhood, adolescence-metamorphosed into adulthood [and some of them expired]. So we have to nurture and encourage newer generation of journals to grow them to optimally contribute instead of putting obstacles. I feel nobody can stop others growth.

4. Definition of an International journal? - ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Definition_of_an_International_journal#574e87b33d7f4bde261f3b8d [accessed Jun 1, 2016].

What is criteria under which a journal can be termed as ‘national’ or ‘international’? at https://achalamunigal.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/what-is-criteria-under-which-a-journal-can-be-termed-as-national-or-international/

the papers are published in research scholars' state journal wether it is impact factor or ISI indexed it will be considered national publication and if the article is published in any other country will be considered international journal.

If the circulation of a journal is in it's own country only then it is called national journal but if it's circulation is world wide then it is counted as international journal.

Dear Dr. Vinod Nair , as per my understanding the two journals are different practical applications.

If the journal is said to be national journal, in most of the cases it publishes research articles that addresses the specific problems of that specific nation.

Where as international journal is a journal that publishes research outputs that do have the applicability to solve the nations plus other regions in the world.

That means, international journal papers do have wider applicability compared with that of national journals that have specific applicability at national level only.

VERY GOOD QUESTION

Paper of country X in a journanal of country X with IF = national publication

Paper of country Y in a journanal of country X with IF = internat publication

Paper of country Y in a journanal of country X without IF = internat publication

Does it make sense? NO SIR

A science journal normally is for everyone. He has no sans frontier, SO there is a good journal , ..... an average journal and a low journal.

It is a big fallacy in my point of view.

I agree with Dr. I Kennedy

Informative discussion.

Informative discussion

National: publishing in your country journals, while international means publishing in journals of other countries

Can conference paper (nation/international) be counted as national or international publication for up gradation from JRF (Junior research fellow) to SRF (senior research fellow)?