The 'need' depends on your personal circumstances. If you are lucky enough that your affiliated institution does not press on you to publish in 'top' journals, then, trying to publish 'only' in Thomson Reuters-listed journals would not make much sense for you.

Thomson Reuters is one of the most profit-oriented publishing/academic service providing corporations. Their journal ranking known as "ISI Web of Knowledge" or "Journal Citation Reports (JCR)" lists only about top 20% of their "Scopus" competitor, namely SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) (http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php).

My suggestion: between the two evils, choose SJR, and you will get a life.

Due to their narrow selection strategies, the Thomson Reuters' list has been abandoned by the Time Higher Education (THE) more than a year ago. The point is that Thomson Reuters' list does not reflect well a wider range of journals where global academics actually publish.

In my opinion, the Thomson Reuters's journal ranking list deserves being boycotted. See Nobel winner Randy Schekman's view in this regard (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals)

The 'need' depends on your personal circumstances. If you are lucky enough that your affiliated institution does not press on you to publish in 'top' journals, then, trying to publish 'only' in Thomson Reuters-listed journals would not make much sense for you.

Thomson Reuters is one of the most profit-oriented publishing/academic service providing corporations. Their journal ranking known as "ISI Web of Knowledge" or "Journal Citation Reports (JCR)" lists only about top 20% of their "Scopus" competitor, namely SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) (http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php).

My suggestion: between the two evils, choose SJR, and you will get a life.

Due to their narrow selection strategies, the Thomson Reuters' list has been abandoned by the Time Higher Education (THE) more than a year ago. The point is that Thomson Reuters' list does not reflect well a wider range of journals where global academics actually publish.

In my opinion, the Thomson Reuters's journal ranking list deserves being boycotted. See Nobel winner Randy Schekman's view in this regard (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals)

Dear Park,

Thanks you very much for your valuable comment.

Why do we need to publish in a good journal? Do we have any benefit?

Please share your view.

Are public recognition and personal reputation of any value for you? Then, benefits are obvious. It is like 100 m speed race.The difference between making it in 14 and 10 seconds benefits the faster runner--s/he will get honor, recognition and prize money.  Academic career is a kind of race in many places, perhaps in too many places

Why do "we" (Pakistani) publish in Thomson Routers Index Journals?

Here in Pakistan, Thomson Routers Journals are indexed in category "W". Publication in these journals "of W category" is beneficial for tenure tract appointments...that (I suppose) is the need of my national Professors (full). Such rule or such categorization may be followed in your country. 

Regards,

My dear friend, it is all about prestige. Higher education institutions often requires its professors and researchers to publish their works in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals. It is also because of the international evaluation of HE Institution.

There are quality papers published in non indexed journals, journals without impact factor, at the international scientific conferences ...

One can publish research article  in Open Access journals that are not predatory. But, be careful.

It is not a MUST but preferred! It is a true Citation Index. Thomson Reuters keep academic, government, corporate, and R&D professionals at the forefront of their markets by providing must-have authoritative content with innovative technologies that assist with discovery, analysis, product development and distribution.

I think, these journals have good reputation that is why we should publish our research papers in these listed journals. 

However, in my institute, it is necessary to publish two research papers in preferably SCI journals to get PhD degree. Because of this rule many of my senior scholars are facing problems in submitting their thesis. However, I am lucky to get two such publications.

I agree with publication in reputed journal adds value and it is essential for professor. But, in our country majority of us (Our government body)are not aware of (or they do not want to learn to uplift corruption) what is a good publication? And because of this fact our gov. agencies are putting one day publication and reputed publication in same side. Therefore, many of us are getting a reputed positions because of one day publication which restricts people those who have reputed publication.

Everything is based on citations!

"Journal Evaluation and Highly Cited Research within the InCites platform provides you with the most comprehensive assessments available of people, papers and publications. By providing these metrics, you can identify influential authors and articles across the research community. Factor emerging trends into your programs, making it easier to identify new programs or policy shifts earlier and track their on-going impact. InCites Journal Evaluation and Highly Cited Data consists of Essential Science Indicators and Journal Citation Reports...

Essential Science Indicators is the ideal resource for conducting complex analyses of scientific literature, so you can easily discover the information you need to:

• Analyze research performance of companies, institutions, nations, and journals.

• Identify significant trends in the sciences and social sciences.

• Rank top countries, journals, scientists, papers, and institutions by field of research.

• Determine research output and impact in specific fields of research.

• Evaluate potential employees, collaborators, reviewers, and peers..."

http://ipscience.thomsonreuters.com/product/journal-citation-reports/?utm_source=false&utm_medium=false&utm_campaign=false

ISI indexed journals are highly esteemed journals. Such journals have a long history. If the new journals concentrate on improving their quality, they can get the same reputation soon. 

How they became reputed? Because of standard publications? If you have true and novel Idea you can publish anywhere and there will be many people to read and cite it. However, nowadays there is proplem that the Area Editors are Biased in most of the journals. They will choose papers from selected groups. This is available even with SCI indexed journals. I suggest dont wait for the journal names, otherwise your Ideas will be published in reputed journals by some femous experts and you will have to just read that paper.

PUBLICATION is a means to share knowledge with the scientific community. If what the author publishes is good, new, novel or useful to the field, the article will be read and cited. The source of publication becomes secondary. However, if the job requirement dictates that the publication must be done by highly indexed journal, the purpose for publication takes a different turn. Publication in such a case, is no longer about scientific inquiry and dissemination of new knowledge; it becomes a search for impact score.

My preference nowadays is to publish articles in engineering magazines.  I work for my own company so don't have to be constrained by arbitrary institutional preferences.  The route to publication is much quicker and it encourages one to write in a manner that is readable by the practising engineer.  The magazines also don't take copyright so there is no problem in publishing in different magazines, say in different countries, to get your message to more engineers.  When I did publish in academic journals I always felt it was slightly immoral that my research was being funded by government (the tax payer) and then the results of my research were being sold (at ridiculous prices) to anyone of the tax payers who had effectively funded the research.  

Various Good/Reputed Universities institution require you to  first publish in such highly reputed journals(Thomson Reuters-listed journals) in order to pursue the Ph.D. degree from these Universities.It is helpful in raising the standard of the research being conducted.

Many institutions offer Ph.D. degree in Engineering without reputed publication.

What are significant differences among Scimago, Scopus, and Thomson routers indexing?

It should be in a seamless way. Why to bother with impact factor? There is no fun in making our research findings or our write-ups being sold. Knowledge dissemination should be devoid of any constraints.

Gov. of India, UGC Notice reg.: UGC approved List of Journals for the purpose of Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) and Direct Recruitment of Teachers and other academic staff as required under the UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges)

http://www.ugc.ac.in/ugc_notices.aspx?id=1604

We should avoid predatory publishers and predatory journals...

J. Beall has identified 1155 predatory publishers, 1294 stand alone predatory journals, 53 misleading metrics, 115 hijacked journals...!

Dear @Ghanshyam, you may visit this fine thread about predatory publishing, as well as our project about the same issue.

https://scholarlyoa.com/2017/01/03/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2017/

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Navigating-the-challenges-of-predatory-publishing?_esc=profileProjectCards&_sg=J-XDmeQv5vsGWfhTKrc_hib7qZNAMCHurPlLKoq2JWa4IUwcHMQ5a1mhFOW7niVpAX6PSRZ3BWnrBbr4pApvYQ.DpvRh5vT_DxBY9tXWAtEiw7F9yX41EF5siHDQ9Bz9RIPxvM58vPS99s-dQXqsaBY.6jsWXhMwmnlKapJNZDlUEUJ-mZXoP00wOkhXbWuPDd_IWy59b2JCKs4wQbiHrTqQ&_viewIds%5B0%5D=35oUwAgZSt3W3hXHZon0vZK2&_viewIds%5B1%5D=ri563bFVJjeT0Zlr1o0DwmlI

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_would_happen_if_WE_ALL_consult_Bealls_list_of_predatory_journals_and_refrain_from_the_possible_probable_or_potential_predators#view=580675e65b49523f3f06edc2

To all researchers: To do the experiment is easy, give time and you get something. The problem is writing research papers. When the researchers sent the rough paper to Elsevier Journals, most of them say, English is poor and suggest students send their manuscript to editing service for money. Students are students he could not pay charges, in such dilemma he publishes good researcher in other cheap and unacceptable journal. I suggest all the Journals which charges a lot must be banned. Like frontier science takes more than 2000 US dollars. Finally, this is not science or research , this a business for Journals. 

Why UGC, Gov. of India added Indian Citation Index in UGC approved List of Journals?

Indian Citation Index contains many predatory publishing journals.

Thanks. Learned a lot from this discussion. Especially "ISI Web of Knowledge" vs. "Scopus".

Ghanshyam G Tejani has mentioned predatory journals. There are also some 'questionable' indexes. See a list of 'Misleading Metrics' from Scholarly Open Access ( https://scholarlyoa.com/other-pages/misleading-metrics/ ).

**Misleading Metrics list: a list of questionable companies that purport to provide valid scholarly metrics at the researcher, article, or journal level.

Dear colleague

I agree with the above answers about publish in Thomson Reuters index journal

Thank you

critical analysis is here

https://scholarlyoa.com/2017/01/03/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2017/

list of predatory journal, hijacked journals, publishers, misleading indices can be found at following links

https://scholarlyoa.com/individual-journals/

https://scholarlyoa.com/other-pages/hijacked-journals/

https://scholarlyoa.com/other-pages/misleading-metrics/

https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/

It is amazing that Jeffry Beall has found 53 misleading metrics! I have written about at previous page. 

Dear @Ghanshyam, please do find attached some fine related research questions with many answers and resources.

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

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

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

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

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

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

@  Ljubomir Jacić,

Thanks for the table of 'misleading metrics'.

Just curious: what are the criteria Jeffry Beall used to distinguish legitimate metrics with misleading metrics? Do you know any discussion of this?

UGC, Indian Gov. decision as usual! (Full of loopholes). UGC approved List of Journals contains mostly Scopus and web of science. However, Indian Citation Index is also incorporated. Indian Citation Index may have many predatory publishing journals. Even one such journal of each field may spoil effectiveness of this action.

Should we allow Google scholar index and similar dubious institutions as research index (impact factor)? - ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Should_we_allow_Google_scholar_index_and_similar_dubious_institutions_as_research_index_impact_factor#587cebbc48954cf052326848 [accessed Jan 17, 2017].

Dear @Yuan, on January 16, 2017, Jeffrey Beall's website has been shut down!!! I am surprised about this fact. I have tried to bring you some discussion/blogs on criteria that distinguish misleading metrics from legitimate metrics. 

Well, many of such answers may be found at different threads at RG... 

Please find this relevant resource attached, based on Beall's work.

Scholarly Research and Related Resources: Predatory Publishers

This was PRO, while the next on is CONTRA!

What Jeffrey Beall gets wrong about altmetrics!

http://libguides.wits.ac.za/Scholarly_Research_Resources/Predatory_Publishers

http://blog.impactstory.org/beall-altmetrics/

Dear @  Ljubomir Jacić, Thanks so much for the links you provided. I will look into it.

Untill we take research communication serious practitioners, these so-called reputed and charlattan journals will continue to milk all of us.

My friend @Wolfgang has brought some answers about J. Beall at the page of our project. Here they are.

https://debunkingdenialism.com/2017/01/16/what-happened-to-jeffrey-bealls-list-of-allegedly-predatory-publishers/

https://web.archive.org/web/20170117015520/https://sfoap.wordpress.com/2017/01/15/sad-ending-jeffrey-bealls-blog-was-shut-down/

Institutional constraints, funding requirements, promotions and other assessment facilitate the quest to publish in Thompson Reuter's indexed journals. 

Retraction Watch

Why did Beall’s List of potential predatory publishers go dark?

http://retractionwatch.com/2017/01/17/bealls-list-potential-predatory-publishers-go-dark/

really a sad ending..!!

Recently Government of India approved more than 44000 journals. This list has the inclusion of a large number of predatory, fake, and questionable journals.

"The UGC-approved List of Journals includes Journals covered in i) Web of Science; ii) Scopus; iii) Indian Citation Index (ICI); iv) Journals recommended by the Standing Committee on Notification on Journal and Language Committee, and v) Journal recommended by Universities"

In my view, UGC should not publish a list of approved journals to maintain authenticity. One sentence is enough "Journal must be listed in Web of Science and Scopus"

See the following web:

http://www.ugc.ac.in/journallist/

 Please share your view.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Shuld_we_trust_on_University_Grants_Commission_UGC_India_approved_journals?_tpcectx=profile_questions

SJR shows true quality publications

The quality, reputation, reach, and acceptability of the journal can be measured using 5 major indices. Please check these indices before communicating to a journal, and one measure alone cannot provide a full picture of the impact of the journal. The measures in the order of priority and its physical interpretations is briefed as follows;

Pr.No#Measure#####Represents#Agency####Why this measure?

1.###Imp. Factor###Quality#####Thom. Rts.#Widely accepted quality measure

2.###SJR#########Reputation##Scopus####Reputation of a journal

3.###SNIP########Acceptability#Scopus####Acceptability of journal in a field

4.###H- Index######Reach#######Google####Likelihood of getting citations if published

5.###CiteScore#####Quality#######Scopus###Alternate to Impact factor but considering a large database of journals.

Thank you Prof. Ghansham ji, a very valuable discussion. My university needs Thomson reuters journals to award Ph.D. In India now a days many genuine Ph.D. holders with good publication track record in good journal cannot able to secure a job because of low level universities awarding Ph.D. degree without following serious norms. Some times without any publications also they are awarding doctorate degree in engineering. For last one week I was bothering for being so truthful in academics because managements are believing the above type of degrees. Not every where in my country is happening like above but most of the places where a sincere student cannot grab a job into academics.

True

When you publish in a reputed approved journal you will get the benefit of reviewing your work by high calibre professional in the field, and read their comments, unlike the one day publishing journals.

I believe that Thomson Reuters index is an agreed mechanism guarantees creditability of the scientific findings for the reader, as it is achieved by the relevant peer reveiwing, and at the same time protects the author from the so-called predatory journals, of course unless these journals got indexed.

Back to the Future: Institute for Scientific Information Re-established Within Clarivate Analytics

 Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation, today announced it will re-establish the prestigious Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) to its Scientific and Academic Research Group. This new incarnation of the institute will be focused on the development of existing and new bibliometric and analytical approaches, fostering collaborations with partners and customers across the academic community...

As part of Clarivate Analytics, ISI will benefit from access to a wealth of data from the Web of Science. With close to 150 million records from 33,000 journals, Web of Science's unique collection of resources provides researchers with the breadth they need to be comprehensive without sacrificing the precision they need to understand the nuances of their field.  ISI will promote greater academia-industry collaboration and plans to draw upon the rich, enhanced patent data from the group's flagship IP database, the Derwent World Patent Index (DWPI). This patent-smart technology will provide the Institute with a unique lens on innovation...

ISI will not only lead in new metrics but it will crucially, be built on the deep and rich experience, understanding and insight of its foundations of setting the standards in responsible metrics...

http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/back-to-the-future-institute-for-scientific-information-re-established-within-clarivate-analytics-1015028624

A well-researched work cannot just be thrown into any journal. Every genuine scientist knows his/her worth. By reason of self assessment one should knows where one belongs. One cannot just throw one's effort, time, money behind just any journal in the name of publication.

For graduate students, this is where good mentoring comes in. You must be advised accordingly to avoid cutting corners in your academic career. Otherwise, you will live to regret it, if you care!

Just like commodities / products in the Stores / Restaurants have Brand Names and Trade Marks; scientific journals have their standards and reputations as well. Predatory journals exit not to improve standard but to corrupt the reputable journals.

There are counterfeit to every original product that exits. The choice is yours!

It is a way to confirm the reliability of your research...by receiving valuable comments and having a certain guarantee that reviews are objective

If a journal is indexed by ISI, formerly Thomson Reuters, it means it meets rigorous conditions set by this indexing company. Thomson Reuters standards are considered very high.

Dear all I would like to ask any one who can help me with a list of those journals with ISI index

Thank you Ghanshyamji for the valuable discussion you open the dark side of Indian education system.

Eugene Mazimpaka please follow this link to search isi journal list.

http://mjl.clarivate.com

A paper in Indexed TR journal means good job, the reverse is not true.

So the need is the principal factor.

I agree with Dr. Ljubomir Jacić

I totally agree with the wonderful explanations given by Dr. Jae Park and Dr. Ljubomir Jacić .

Kindly see the following issue:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Should_we_trust_on_University_Grants_Commission_UGC_India_approved_journals?_ec=topicPostOverviewAuthoredQuestions

interesting discussion

It is really interesting discussions. Thanks all.

I agree with@ Ljubir Jacic.

Hope you good luck.

Best wishes

thank you for this question and for all this interesting answers,i totally agree with M. Ljubomir Jacić

Good luck

I request all of you to comment on my shared question.

Researchers definitely need to publish their journals in Thomson Reuters indexed one. Because the index was give to the quality of the journals. If our work is quality then only they will publish with peer review.

Dear @Naushad! How to check which paper is useful if Thomson Router is a fraud?

Dear @Naushad! Impact factor of journal depends on how many times that journal’s papers have been cited and more citation means that that paper has some worth. The quality of work also depends on the knowledge you and your supervisor have, the facilities in your institutio, the callaboration between the academia and the industeries and many other things. In particular, research environment in Pakistan is no more older than two decades and the oldest university is the University of Peshawar (established in 1951), how will you compete with the research in Oxford and Harverd which have been established centuries ago. It will take time, nothing is achieved in days.

dear naushad khan.

i think a sentence you wrote that " The real impact factor is the out put".

NO doubt we should rank the impact in the field not in a famous or highly recommended journal

Dear Naushad! Read my answer again

Research activity is constantly being evaluated by both outside experts and in-house experts. An individual researcher or research group may evaluate the quality of their own research findings in relation to the research within their own discipline, and will be interested, for example, in the level of research produced by co-workers. The focus of the evaluation can be a single researcher, or a research group/institution, or the research activity of a whole country...

The obsolescence of literature in different disciplines can be seen in the citations that publications get and the bibliographies of publications. Literature grows old fast, especially in Medicine and Biosciences, but not so fast in soft disciplines. However, in Mathematics, for example, older literature often gets cited. The obsolescence can be measured with Citing Half-life and Cited Half-life calculations. The Thomson Reuters produced Journal Citation Reports calculates Citing Half-life and Cited Half-life. Older literature ceases to be cited not only because the information goes out of date, but also because it becomes commonly accepted knowledge, and is then utilised but not marked as a citation in publications. Journals of different disciplines receive very different IF scores because of different citation norms, and yet they are calculated in the same way for all journals, counting two years worth of citation information. The Impact Factor is most suitable in evaluating journals for those hard disciplines where literature is cited soon after the publishing, and where literature gets out of date quickly too...

http://libguides.oulu.fi/evaluatingpublications

I utterly agree with the submission @Prof. Ljubomir Jacić, publishing in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals in firstly because of prestige attached to it.

There are many other papers not published in this so called high impact factor journals that are quality research and with good citations.

I fear predatory journals.

Dear @How many such papers have you published?

interesting answer of Ljubomir Jacić.

thank you.