I know all tricks to improve the impact factor (exchange of authorship) in view of my long career. However, I exercise as referee for about 30 journals. Well, I do not watch affiliation or impact factor of the authors, but only the quality of the product.

If it is a legitimate point of the literature review, I do not think it is unreasonable to include a small number of self-citations or citations of colleagues.  But only if it is legitimate.

I do not like the idea of adding someone as an author as an honor or in order to seek favor from that person (and I know people who do this). It is dishonest.

Dear @ Marković  and all,

Yes, but   this false collaboration is in all our institutions.

Regards

Not if we're dealing with really blind peer-reviews. However - we can not exclude that "internal publishing policy" in some journals "orders to pay attention" to the IF parameter of the author(s).

I also suggest to look for an article on a related subject. It does not apply to the author's Impact Factor but his affiliation. However, the problem is very similar.

See:

http://iaesjournal.com/online/index.php/IJECE/article/view/8031

or

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276038370_Affiliation_Oriented_Journals_Dont_Worry_About_Peer_Review_If_You_Have_Good_Affiliation

Article Affiliation Oriented Journals: Don’t Worry About Peer Review...

I agree with Marković G. Đoko in his opinion. Thanks for this discussion itis important to be known by every researcher

@ Tomasz  

Thanks for your important links and paper.

@ Fatima

Yes, this discussion is important for all researchers.

Best regards

No, not at all, it is true that the IMPACT FACTOR of the authors influence the publication of articles in high impact factor journals, in my personal opinion, good, fundamental and social oriented Research is really research and helps the increase in the IMPACT FACTOR. Second one,  giving someone name is the paper for accepting the paper without someone's contribution is not good for scientific community.

I know all tricks to improve the impact factor (exchange of authorship) in view of my long career. However, I exercise as referee for about 30 journals. Well, I do not watch affiliation or impact factor of the authors, but only the quality of the product.

@ Niranjan and all

This is not good for scientific community but really, it exists!

Regards

Dear All,

This is a very old trick, one has already discussed about it several times.  This is strengthened by the honorary or compulsory authorship too.  

This practice shows clearly how deformed is the actual scientific evaluation system.

@ Ierardi Enzo

Yes, really you are a good example to follow.

Best regards

 Loophole exists in publishing of articles in high impact factor journals. Well known professor, influential person in aid giving agency, country and institution names and favouritism etc may help in this regard

If we do hard work in a persistent and continuous way then we will be able to publish in reputed journal. So we can improve our impact factor (IF) or higher H-factor in return,  So those who have high IF legitimately should not be accused of false collaboration, cheating, exchange of authorship, dishonesty, etc. We should target reputed journals to publish our work if possible, but sometimes we settle for less reputed journals (with low or no IF) because of the quality of the paper, limited time for publication, ... "We Reap What We Sow" the saying says.

Dear @ András Bozsik and all,

Yes, it is an old trick that distorts the real scientific evaluation system. You have a solution?

Best regards

 @ Mahmoud

This is your opinion, i respect it.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Impact factors are heavily criticized as measures of scientific quality. However, they still dominate every discussion about scientific excellence. They are still used to select candidates for positions as PhD student, postdoc and academic staff, to promote professors and to select grant proposals for funding. As a consequence, researchers tend to adapt their publication strategy to avoid negative impact on their careers. Until alternative methods to measure excellence are established, young researchers have to learn the “rules of the game”.

However, young scientists often need advice how to reach higher impact factors with their publications.

please, see the following interested websites for further information:

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/33209/title/Less-Influence-for-High-Impact-Journals/

http://www.smartsciencecareer.com/increase-the-impact-factor-of-your-publication/

http://phys.org/news/2012-11-reveals-declining-high-impact-factor.html

http://wokinfo.com/essays/impact-factor/

Dear Fateh,

The problem is that not honesty and right results are important in this system but impact points independently of the real merit. This shows unambiguously that scientific performance cannot be evaluated with a sum of points. I think that there are behind IF evaluation many political, economic and personnel interests. One should change the whole system. When I was a young man, nobody dealt with impact points but with the scientific message of papers.

@ Hazim

Yes, they need guidance for publishing in journals with high impact factors.  

Forever, you will find links demonstrative.

Regards

Dear Mahmoud,

Nobody should be accused but there are facts. E.g. authors’ affiliation influence highly the acceptance of their manuscripts. I suggest you to read this brief article showing the operation of peer-review of some journals: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276038370_Affiliation_Oriented_Journals_Dont_Worry_About_Peer_Review_If_You_Have_Good_Affiliation

Another fact is that the number of honorary or compulsory authors (mainly bosses) is over 30% among authors. Most of them have nothing to do with the paper.

So much about hard work of some privileged scientists.

Article Affiliation Oriented Journals: Don’t Worry About Peer Review...

Dear  @ András Bozsik

Yes, I agree with you for the scientific message of papers.

But evaluation system is unforgivable.

Regards

In as much as some people practice this kind of unscientific behaviour, that does not remove the fact that it is a wrong thing to do. Many people have decided to engage themselves in different kind of such practices in the name of getting high impact points. Sometimes, the society has pushed many into to it since almost everything regarding academic promotion is depended on this so called impact factor not necessarily the quality of the paper.

At the same time, I would not blame the people who are in such practices so much but would blame the journals for accepting manuscript where the citations are not related to the context of the work or has very little significance.

I think reviewers should also take critical look at the citations while rigorously reviewing the manuscript. In this case, some flimsy citations could be avoided.

@ Olaniyi Samuel Iyiola

I agree with you.

Dear @Fateh, thanks for sharing the thread. There were so many threads about IF where I have joined the discussion. This time I will not mention these threads but I will bring fine editorial which describes Impact Factor Distorstions!

"...The impact factor, a number calculated annually for each scientific journal based on the average number of times its articles have been referenced in other articles, was never intended to be used to evaluate individual scientists, but rather as a measure of journal quality. However, it has been increasingly misused in this way, with scientists now being ranked by weighting each of their publications according to the impact factor of the journal in which it appeared.

The misuse of the journal impact factor is highly destructive, inviting a gaming of the metric that can bias journals against publishing important papers in fields (such as social sciences and ecology) that are much less cited than others (such as biomedicine). And it wastes the time of scientists by overloading highly cited journals such as Science with inappropriate submissions from researchers who are desperate to gain points from their evaluators..."

Dear @ Ljubomir 

Thank you for this description and the attached paper of Impact Factor Distortions.

How about this practice : Develop a publication strategy depending on your career goals! 

"Young scientists often get conflicting advice on how they should publish. Every generation of young scientists has to address similar questions: Should I publish several smaller papers or should I focus on one big paper with a high impact factor? What is the effect of my publication strategy on my career and the possibility to raise grant money? How important is my publication list for a non-academic career?..."

http://www.smartsciencecareer.com/best-publication-strategy-in-science/

Yes @ Ljubomir, It is interesting to develop a publication strategy depending on our career goals.

I am totally agree with Marković G. Đoko.

Dear All,

The very question and the answers offered shade lights as to how scientific works are abused and used as a business. This is a bad sign of things that are in the event horizon of their demise. 

Dear Dejenie and all,

Yes, it is a bad sign where the scientific works are abused and used as a business. 

Best regards

It is a very good and relevant question. I have a feeling that  even for good journals, reputation of authors matters more than the quality of the the contents of the articles. So authors take unethical practices  to become more and more popular as you mentioned. It is really an unfortunate situation.

I think it's the high impact factor of journals that attract authors to publish in them. But I would be more concerned about h index (and the number of citations) than about impact factors.  I will be back.  From mobile.

 Dear Dr. Fateh Mebarek-Oudina

Dear all

Thank you for your important question. Actually during the last few years many researchers are using this to increase their h- index and their citation records. The problem is some of the citations are really irrelavent to the paper subject. This push me to write a small article you can find it on the following link:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277569576_The_impact_of_citation_impact

The new citation evaluation system can minimize the effect of such non scientific ciatations I have introduced it to the Web of Science and they promised me to take some of its parts into consideration specially the part related to the evaluation of review papers.

With best regards

Sadeem

Research The impact of citation impact

Only quality papers we can publish in high impact factor journals. They are not concerned with designation and status of the author.

The publishing of scholarly works can be achieved through a variety of outlets, be it the traditional book, journal, monograph or electronic form. However, the advent of the peer-reviewed journal provides one of the important and most significant avenues for the dissemination and extension of knowledge. Indeed, the scholarly peer-reviewed journal tends to enjoy unchallenged leadership as the preferred, and traditional, publication outlet for academics and professionals (Tenopir & King, 2001).

IF is a measure of how often its papers are cited, and is used as a proxy for quality. It  has been viewed as one of the commonly accepted means of gauging a journal's standing by editors, authors and university administrators.But the simplistic use of IF can give a skewed view of a researcher’s achievements. So IF should not be used as a measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist’s contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions.

Tenopir, C., & King, D.W. (2001). Lessons for the future of journals. Nature, 413 (6857), 672-673.

Dear Ierardi, that is the only way to ensure that all people get a fair change for being published

This is not 100% true.But there are even good journals in which papers of less worth have been published only due to authored by persons of fame in way or the other. Such considerations should not be part while publishing a paper. The publications on payment basis should be opposed by the researchers so that  such shops be closed.

Dear

Thanks for this very important question. This trend of gaining impact points and shearing publications has become rampant in the scientific community especially in those researchers which work for their fame rather than for the benefit of the society or for that matter for the benefit of the world as a whole. There is a need to quash this trend, but it will be possible only when the fellow scientists realize and shear their names in publications with those only who have significantly contributed in the publication.

ًThe quality of the manuscript and other scientific work will be evaluated through its contribution to the knowledge and fill the information gap of specific issues. The impact factor is statistical matter.

Those practises are games from people that have nothing or at least a marginal contribution to scientific research, but they want to enjoy the benefits of a true researcher...

 Dear Dr. Fateh, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. Many games are played in publications of research.  Examples: As you said correctly ""I put my name in your paper, in order that you put mine in yours". Also " Cite me & I shall cite you". Also " Put my name on your paper & I'll help you in promotion, in getting a comfortable schedule, and in extending your contract or your permit to stay in this country, These games of dishonesty require full-time follow up & investigation so as scientific research returns to its previous true glory.

It is quite odd that this behaviour persists. Several factors should make it less attractive than it apparently is. Here are two:

1. If you bring more authors in, your own role in the paper will diminish. If you bring in people who are more famous than yourself, then no-one will think that you have done much work on the paper. If you bring in junior researchers, and you are senior yourself, then you diminish your own part of the story, because then some people may think that your students wrote everything, and you just forced your own name to be put on it.

2. If you are invited to take part in a paper that someone else has written, there is very little to be proud of on your own account. You should rather be ashamed that you have climbed aboard a ship that you have had no role in building or steering.

Only in a world where there is no shame can this practice be natural. Stop this nonsense now!

Notwithstanding whatever has been said, this attitude relates to ethical research activities that one pursues, self organised ethics and control that would do away with such traits. In my view, if serious academic and research engagements are there, this might lead to honest deliverables. This can be measured through quality of delivery rather than who authored it.

Dear all,

Good day,

@ Nizar,

I am touched by these words:

"Put my name on the paper and I will help you in promotion"

If you say no sorry, you would be blocked. Now, she is registered in my memory.

Best regards

Dear Dr. Sadeem Fadhil,

Realy, this is interesting paper, good luck with this new citation evaluation system.

Best regards

This attitude can not be stopped until moral system is not strong, as well as department seniors present as role model.

 Dear DrFateh Mebarek-Oudina 

Thank you so much, I appretiate your kind 

comments and looking 

Dear Fateh, actually your question should read...

"The impact factor of the journals....". Many of us have made the error of applying impact factor to researchers, unconsciously.  From mobile.

Dear @ Miranda and all,

Maybe, We try to correct this error in future.

it is possible?

Regards

Dear Fateh, to correct an error on our post, It's easy.  Just put the mouse on the top right, and click EDIT.  But to correct the concept of applying IF to researchers is extremely difficult.  And to put the PREDATOR JOURNALS COMPLETELY OUT OF BUSINESS is also extremely difficult.  I have received 4 emails from such predator journals.  It's Ljubomir who helped me to recognize them.  Isn't this one of the best things of RG?  From mobile.

Its an interesting question....  

Another case, when you submit your article for publication in some journals, the editors suggest that you put in your references published articles in the same journal  to increase the self citation number of the journal!

regards

Dear @ Miranda and all

Yes, RG has many of the things to playing.

Best regards

Dear @ Abdulghefar and all,

Yes,  this case exist really.

What is your opinion ?

Dear@Fateh Mebarek-Oudina

I will show how the following problem may be resolved

When Scientific journals are evaluated,  evaluating process  differentiate between citation number and self citation, (self citation mean a citation of an article at the same journal). A similar method  can be used .  For example certain author have several published article  at the same journal (sometimes the scope of the journal may be far away from the topic of the article), this may be an important point for bad evaluating the scholarly journals. 

Regards

@ Abdulghefar,

Thank you for your opinion.

Co-authors of the article doesn't interfere me, if we do a good article together. A content of article is important for me, the impact factor is important, but it is not the most important thing for me.

Dear @Alexander

Yes, I agree with you for the importance of content of article.

Best regards

Dear @ Ahmed and all

Yes, we must review the whole system, but  how?

Best regards

Dear all,

"certainly why not?There is always high visibility for high impact journals and papers published in those journals. Those authors publish in high impact factor journals will certainly get better impact for their research and more citations. The issue is how many of us can do that?It depends on many factors facilities, collaborations etc which brings good research and good publications. Good students working in the labs also make a difference."

                                                     PE Rajasekharan 

Best regards

Sometimes, journals invite papers from good researchers those excellent the particular area of research.

 @ Subhash

Yes,  This case  existe.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"It is common, and encouraged by many journals, for research to be judged by the impact factor of the journal that publishes it. But as a journal's score is an average, it says little about the quality of any individual piece of research."

                                                                      -------   Randy Schekman

Dear all,

"Yes, I agree that it gives a little about the quality of the individual piece of research work."

                                          Dinesh C Gupta

Best regards

Dear Fateh and all, this seems to be a good place to ask your sound opinions.  Normally I write for a local journal that has no impact factor.  And I have had some papers rejected by a journal in US, with impact factor on the grounds that it is not in the scope, not suitable for the readership.  It means that they are not interested in research from my far off country, although we are now in a global village.  The journals with IF are free, but if we use their open access option (when our paper is accepted), we have to pay.  

So is there much difference for paying for the open access of such a journal, and those that are open access, but charge a reasonable fee?  What do you think?

Dear All

I fully agree with Lerardi. the important thing is the quality of  the product

Authors earn good impact factor by writing and publishing quality papers. Any author who writes quality paper, definitely will be accepted. Individual does not matter.

Your title question is different from the question which you posed in the body!

I rest assure you that the answer to your title question, which implies an author's reputation has an impact on the publication, is NO. Certainly not in any of the 15 journals which I am member of the editorial board or review for and are published by different houses (from Elsevier and Cambridge University Press to Canadian Center for Science and Education) under different policies.

However, the answer to your question about cross authorship is positive. Unfortunately, that has become as prevalent as cross referencing of authors, since they learned that self-citation is a red on the ledger.

Before the advent of the internet, some dishonest academics used to travel from one country to another in order to "shop" for participation in published research paying money (and not effort) for co-authorship or single authorship at 2 different prices. The arrival of the internet & smart phones has facilitated the dishonesty game but platforms (such as Research Gate) have revealed the hidden secrets. The dishonest academic cannot bury his/her head in the sand & soon, the refusal to admit this fallacy will add more problems to this "fake" scholar.

Dear @Miranda, what is reasonable fee for OA publishing?

Dear @Manuel, you are absolutely right about the fact that accepted and published paper is not guarantee for its quality, even Journal is considered as "good one"! To overcome situation that you have described, much has to be done with  reviewers' ethics and good payment for reviewers to do serious review of the article!

Dear all,

@ Fadel

@ Subhash

Product quality is our main goal.

Best regards

If we know the general quality of our paper, we can narrow down our choices. I asked two similar questions about "journal selection strategy" and "citation" some times ago here in RG. Some of the answers were excellent and relevant to current question. The RG links to them are given below:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_your_journal_selection_strategy_in_publishing_papers_that_you_have_written

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_acceptable_to_cite_popular_publications_in_a_scholarly_journal

Dear all,

"I think you are aboslutely right, authors with high impact factor are welcome to publish in the most prestigious reviews and journals. the impact factor of the author is influencing the editors to accept or deny the publish of the paper in their reviews and journals."

                                            Said Jaouadi 

Best regards

To science such a practice is of a very low impact.

Dear all,

"Respect matters here!!!! If your colleague help you in such a way to improve your work to one step better, obviously we have to give authorship to them...According to me its just a man thing to help others if we are given respect, impact factor doesn't matter in this. its just a credit given to them and it will improve you to one step more...Thanks for asking my opinion!!!"

                                                                                            Suresh Kumar

Best regards,

If the authors have not contributed to the text that is not a good solution to extend authorship for non authors.

Dear all,

Good day,

"Infact research should not be hold ransom to impact factor stuff. impact factor has originated from commercial publication of journals of big publishers and their marketing strategies.

you are write some poeple have followed you scratch my back and i scratch yours tactics to manipulate with it.

i strongly believe that quality research should prevail and not be judged by simply impact factor.  You are right."

                                                                             Dr paresh Vyas

Best regards

 Everything is dear Fateh. The quality of production or research in this case remains and remains the prevailing means

 I think the point Ljubomir Jacic raised is very important. These are factors that often determine the extent some young scientists conduct their research. Especially regarding career and grant purposes.

However, we should think about our reputation as a researcher and think beyond the present time. Thus will largely depend on what we aspire to become.

Absolutely, @ Fadel.

Definitely, some new metrics should be developed in order to be a real one, a true indicator of the value of scientists and scientific work, invariant to various fraud and malpractice, ethically better than scientometrics used now.

Yes, Ljubomir Jacić.

Dear Ljubomir and all, perhaps RG also agrees with you that a better evaluation is needed, and so has come up with the RG score that even includes Q and A.  JUST LET IT BE TRANSPARENT AND NOT AFFECTED by downvoting, and then we may agree.  What do you think?  Let it be a good measure of the skills and experience, effort and knowledge of a researcher... And please add what I may have missed.  Thanks.

Publication history, impact factor, reputation of researchers may help!

Nothing to add dear @Miranda. I do very much agree about unethical downvoting which certainly influence RG score in terms of decreasing it. I would not forbid downvote field but, as you have said, I would introduce an obvious and required field for an explanation of downvote. That is what transparency is, right!?

In my humble opinion, the Interview, Lecturing, Supervision, Discussion , Reviewing, Questioning, and Answering  are more significant than the impact factor.

Dear all,

Good day,

@ Mohammed I. Younis, Thank you for your interesting opinion.

Yes, @ Manuel Alberto,       The influence of impact factor of the authors exist really.

Best regards

Mere numbers are of no use in any scale. The scales to measure researchers must be of use

• either as an acknowledgement in standings (or)
• attached to any other benefits.

Dear all,

Good day,

@ Krishnan

Two scales for measuring researchers must be considered.

Best regards