Despite numerous commentators denouncing the metric and many prestigious journals discontinuing its use as a promotional tool, the journal impact factor (JIF) refuses to go away and remains pervasive in scientific publishing. “The impact factor is a statistically indefensible indicator of journal performance; it flatters to deceive, distributing credit that has been earned by only […]
Is it misconduct to submit a translated version of a published paper to another journal?
The short answer … Yes – if you do not declare that it is a translated version of an already published paper. No – if you make it clear that it is a translated version, i.e., not original research. This blog English is the (current) universal language of science. The pressure on English-as-a-second-language (ESL) researchers […]
How to choose a journal
With an estimated 30,000 active scientific journals, each with their own specific requirements, it can be difficult to know where to send your article. Here, we present a short video blog with some tips on choosing the right journal. In summary: 1. Look at your reference list Identify the journal titles of: articles that were […]
Don’t fall prey to “predatory” journals
What are predatory journals? Predatory journals are profiteering “individuals or companies”, who use the open-access publishing system to exploit authors, by charging them article processing fees without providing the high quality editorial services associated with legitimate journals [1]. How prevalent are they? Predatory journals are on the rise; their publication volumes increased “from 53,000 in […]
Impact Factor
Understanding journal impact factors What they are An impact factor is a metric for ranking scientific journals [1]. Impact factors are calculated for every two-year period by dividing the number of times articles were cited by the number of articles that are citable [2]. The following is a list of the top five highest-impact journals […]
