Where Do I Publish My Research Paper? Some Quality Considerations I.R.N. Goudar Head, ICAST National Aerospace Laboratories Bangalore

Publication Channels  Journals  Technical Reports  Conference Proceedings  House Magazines

Great Journals are born in the hands of the editors; they die in the hands of businessmen. -Bernard DeVoto

Criteria for Journal Selection for Publishing  International VS National VS Local  Refereed VS Nonrefereed  Currency  Availability of E-version  Visibility and Market share of the Publisher  Circulation Statistics  Language  Subject  Periodicity  Professional Society Publication?  SCI Covered?  Coverage by I & A Services  Impact Factor

Citations are used to recognise and acknowledge the intellectual property rights of authors. Citations are used to show respect to previous scholars. Citations operate as a kind of mutual reward system. Citations are a tool of persuasion. Citations are used to supply evidence that the author qualifies as a member of the chosen scholarly community. Citations are used to create a research space for the citing author. Citations are used to demonstrate familiarity with the field. Citing other Authors

Citation Quality  Good citation data is a sign of good scholarship  Good citation data - has all relevant papers cited to show that the authors are aware of related literature - citation has to conform to journal style  But citation styles vary a lot for disciplines  Citations in the hard sciences are a lot more formal

 Coverage - More than 8000 journals & conference proceedings - Over 20,000 new items added each week to the citation databases - Letters, articles, editorials etc  Web interface to : - Science Citation Index – 5,300 Titles - Social Sciences Citation Index – 1,700 Titles - Arts & Humanities Citation Index – 1,700 Titles - ISI Proceedings (included since January 2000) Web of Science

LUTZ H RETTENMA.G (DE) ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS OF RENAL DESEASE DEUT MED WO RN8 Source Index

NAIR KG 66 BIOCHEMESTRY5 150 DESOUSA RCJ PHYSL PAR R71575 MASLINSK. CAGENT ACTION … 68 CIRCULATION RESEARCH 23 ANVERSA PLAB INV … Citation Index

 Unique Resource tool for journal evaluation & comparison - Based on the collection and analysis of citation data  JCR can be used top examine citation data - Relating to a particular journal or group of journals - The service shows the relationship between cited and citing journals in a clear, easy-to-use framework  Each Journal-indexed for five full consecutive years - Updated annually in August/September  Separate product and searched separately - Uses athens authentication service - Print option but no ing Journal Citation Reports

 Total Cites - Total number of times that each journal has been cited in a given year  Impact factor - Measures the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited within a given year  Immediacy Index - Measure of how quickly the average article in a specific journal is cited  Articles - The number of articles published in a journal in a given year  Cited Half-life - The number of publication years from the current year which account for 50% of current citations received JCR : Five Primary Data

 Finding the most cited journals: journals that received the highest number of citations in a given year  Finding the largest journals: journals that published the greatest number of articles in a given year  High Impact journals: journals with the highest average citations per recent article  ‘Hottest’ journals: journals which received most cites per current article  Identify Review journals Uses of JCR

Identify journals in which to publish, confirm status of journals in which they are published, identify journals relevant to their research JCR for Authors

The Impact Factor: What is It?  An index of scientific impact or significance  Chief quantitative measure of the quality of a journal, its research papers, the researchers who wrote those papers, and even the institution they work in  one of three measures which index the way a journal receives citations to its published articles over time

Generalised Citation Curve

The Impact Factor: How it is calculated?  Impact Factor is the measure of the relative size of the citation curve in years 2 and 3  Calculated by dividing the number of current citations a journal receives to the articles published in the two previous years by the number of articles published in those same years

IF Calculation Citations in 2001 to articles published in 1999 and = = 1.5 Number of articles published 1000 in 1999 and 2000

1. Annual Review of Immunology Annual Review of Biochemistry Cell Nature Genetics Nature New England Journal of Medicine Nature Medicine Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology 26.3 Developmental Biology Current Opinion in Cell Biology Science24.6 The Impact Factor: The Top Ten (1999)

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Year Science Edition Categories : Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Year Science Edition Categories : Engineering, Environmental

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Year Science Edition Categories : Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Year Science Edition Categories : Polymer Science

Impact Factors and Journal Type

 Variation based on article type (review, rapid publication, etc.)  Variation by subject field or area (general vs. specialized)  Variation based on number of authors  Variation based on number of articles The Impact Factor: Considerations

Subject Variation in Impact Factors

What is Good IF Value?  above 10Impressive  5-10Very good  3-5Good  1-2Okay  < 1Weak  < 0.1Why publish at all

Annual Review of Neuroscience22.7 Trends in Neuroscience19.9 Neuron16.8 Journal of Neuroscience 8.4 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 5.2 Journal of Neurophysiology 3.4 Visual Neuroscience 2.2 Brain Research 2.1 Experimental Brain Research 2.0 Neuroscience Letters 1.9 Neuroscience Research Communications 0.7 The Impact Factor: One Discipline

The IF: Consideration for Publication?  You should have a sense of the impact of the journals in your area and/or discipline  This should be taken into account when deciding on a journal, but should be only one of a number factors

The Impact Factor: Applications  Used increasingly as a tool for assessing publication quality  Consequently, it can be used in decisions : - hiring - raises - promotion and tenure - departmental or institutional research profile research profile