Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Basic rules of writing
- 2 Comments on scientific language
- 3 Drafting the manuscript
- 4 Choosing a journal
- 5 Preparing a graph
- 6 Drawings
- 7 Figure legends
- 8 How to design tables
- 9 Title
- 10 Authors
- 11 Abstract
- 12 Introduction
- 13 Methods
- 14 Results
- 15 Discussion
- 16 Acknowledgments
- 17 References
- 18 Ph.D. and other doctoral theses
- 19 Letters and case reports
- 20 Numbers
- 21 Abbreviations
- 22 How to present statistical results
- 23 Typing
- 24 Dealing with editors and referees
- 25 Correcting proofs
- 26 Authors‘ responsibilities
- Literature needed on your desk
- Further reading
- Literature cited
- Index
4 - Choosing a journal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Basic rules of writing
- 2 Comments on scientific language
- 3 Drafting the manuscript
- 4 Choosing a journal
- 5 Preparing a graph
- 6 Drawings
- 7 Figure legends
- 8 How to design tables
- 9 Title
- 10 Authors
- 11 Abstract
- 12 Introduction
- 13 Methods
- 14 Results
- 15 Discussion
- 16 Acknowledgments
- 17 References
- 18 Ph.D. and other doctoral theses
- 19 Letters and case reports
- 20 Numbers
- 21 Abbreviations
- 22 How to present statistical results
- 23 Typing
- 24 Dealing with editors and referees
- 25 Correcting proofs
- 26 Authors‘ responsibilities
- Literature needed on your desk
- Further reading
- Literature cited
- Index
Summary
You will most probably find the right journal for your paper among those periodicals you most often read. That is where you have your readership.
If you think that more than one journal seems appropriate, you may wish to rank them by quality. One way to do so is to look at the “impact factor,” which tells how often the average article of a journal is cited. Such information is provided by the Institute for Scientific Information in its annual Journal Citation Reports.
The impact factor is especially useful for comparing journals within a particular field of research. Let us take, for example, orthopaedics. The 41 journals listed for 2005 had an impact factor in the range 0.1–4.2, with a median of 0.9. It is reasonable to assume that journals with an impact factor of 4.2 attract the best papers in the field, and that these journals have a greater impact on science in that field than a median (0.9) impact-factor journal.
However, if you select a high-impact journal, the publication of your paper may be delayed, as is hinted at in this question from a course participant:
Should I send my paper to a journal with a high impact factor and risk having it rejected, or should I send it to a journal with a lower impact factor and get it published quicker?
If you feel in your heart that yours is a first-class paper, then try the high-impact journal – provided that it is a specialized journal in your own field.
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- Chapter
- Information
- How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper , pp. 18 - 19Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008