It depends on the field, I think. Current research shows that articles in high Impact Factor journals are not cited more than those in low Impact Factor journals, and in fact there is a positive correlation between rate of retraction and Impact Factor.

I completely agree that the reply to the question is that the minimum IF that one should aim for in journal selection is field development.

I find it hard to believe Dr. Nishas statement "that articles in high Impact Factor journals are not cited more than those in low Impact Factor journals, ...". Journal impact factors are calculated from the references the papers published in them receives so the mathematical logic seems to contradict this formulation. Is it possible that - if you give the references to current research that you mention - they might show that in some cases a manuscripts impact (citations) is increasingly unaffected by the journal's prestige and impact factor and more on the content of the manuscript.

The increasing unimportance of journals prestige for a paper's citations could be explained by that we now find articles in databases based on search for keywords in the title and abstract while a few decades ago (paper age) a research might choose to focus on following a few key journals.

Review journals have more impact factor compared to original research journals. The nature of the article may match the nature of journal. Impact factor is also not uniform as determined by different evaluation agencies. However, the journal should be peer-reviewed and fairly well circulated both on internet and hard copy.

Dear Tichaona Mapolisa 

Have a nice time and good day

I'm also agree with our collegues, the impact factor of journals mainly depends on the research field and the point of research itself. For example in my field (solid state physics) the impact factor of reputable journals ranged between 0.6 to more than 32 (nature and Science Journals). Moreover, In the field of the medicine many journals have higher impact factors, which may reach to 43.

So you should define your research area

I am of the same view as other respected RG members. Your choice of a journal must not be entirely IMPACT FACTOR dependent, instead you must publish in a journal whose aim and scope matches the best with your work.

Generally, the impact factor of a journal varies depending upon the area of specialization. The journals with interdisciplinary field have high impact factor. Moreover, the journals with review articles also have high impact factor. Basically, the impact factor gives overview of the average number of citations to recent articles published in that journal. The journals with higher impact factors deemed to be more important than those with lower ones. Therefore, higher impact factor will give better presentation to your research work.

As far as the publishing of an article is concerned, first of all it is essential to check that the area of the research work falls within the scope of the journal. Thereafter, you can go for checking the impact factor of a journal in a specified field. But, there should not be any constraint on the minimum impact factor of a journal since it depends on other parameters like specialization field, the quality of work, the publishing quality etc.