Criteria for Selecting a Journal

S. Zahedi

Endocrine Research CenterResearch Institute for endocrine SciencesShaheed Beheshti University of Medical Scienceszahedi@endocrine.ac.irWWW.endocrine.ac.ir

3rd Sientific Meeting of ISME-22 Dec 2010-Tehran

Why publish?

• A report• Responsibility• Promotion• Graduation• Competition• Announcement• Good for end users

Why publish• Apart from the believes of Publish or

Perish!

• An article is the product of a research project:

• If it is not published in a peer reviewed journal

– Usually it is not accepted be the scientific world– It is not disseminated – The results might be pinched

Before starting to write:

In the article which I am going to write:

oWhat am going to say?oIs it worth saying?oWhat is the best way to sayoWhich group may study the article?oWhich Journal is the best? (Ask the editor)

April 21, 2023

Which Journal?• National

• The number of submitted manuscripts are dropping• The quality of the manuscripts are dropping

– The quality of the works are increased– Stress on journals with ISI and impact factor is increased– Awareness about the publication ethics is increased

• We should do something about that!!!

• International• Right journal from the users point of view• Some times may not be in the scope of the journal

Which Journal?

• Fair review– Supposed to be so– But it seems it is not– It is difficult to prove– But many believe there are

• Pregidism• Restrictions

Which Journal?• Impact factor?

– Number of citation during 2 previous years of calculation/ total number of published papers

• All articles are not included in the denominator• Some publishers negotiate with the TS ( Sudden jump of

IF for certain journals)• Problem of retracted articles• Tricks by editors. Accepting more review articles or

articles about genome• Force the editors to reject good negative findings

Which Journal?

• Prestige

– Usually high impact factor• Very good for CV and career• Very difficult to succeed • It is a wish and goal for any researcher but

– For some one with long CV fine– For a PhD student who need to publish a paper

from his/her thesis well?

Which Journal?

• Speed

– Some times speed is crucial• Quick publication of significant findings• Needed for promotion• Needed for graduation

– So one may ignore any other considerations

Which Journal?

• Open access

– Open access journals are increasing

• Increase visibility

• Increase citation

• Economic reasons might tamper the process

Which Journal?

• Length restriction and page charges

– Charge for printed page– Charge after certain number of pages– For a large amount of findings which can not be

divided, one need a journal with no charges or little charges

Which Journal?

• Some other factors

– Figure production– Reprint costs– Wide distribution– Providing free PDF copies– Copy right retention

Which Journal?

• One need to be realistic

Every one wants to publish in “Nature” or “Science”

But they announce that they reject 95% of the manuscripts.

So attempt to publish in these type of journals may be just waste of time.

Be realistic and formulate your submission policy according to what you have got

A simple study• Questionnaire was sent to 125 corresponding

authors of the published articles in Iranian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism as a post publishing survey

• Journal was established in 1378• Biannually• Quarterly• And now bimonthly• 25 issues have been published• Prize winner of Razi festival• Rejection rate is about 40%

• The questions were mainly about the reason(s) for selecting IJEM for publishing their findings

Some data on IJEM

Authors’ opinion about IJEM

Conclusion

• Authors should formulate their strategy according to the situation.

• Journal should analyze their status and formulate their strategy to attract more articles.