First let me go over where the Impact Factor (IF) comes from.  The IF is calculated and made public by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) using this equation:

Impact Factor Year X = (Citations in Year X to all items from Year X-1 and X-2) / (Number of “source items” from Year X-1 and X-2)

This may seem rather esoteric so let me plug in what this would look like for, say, the 2007 IF:

2007 IF = (2007 cites to all items from 2006 and 2005) / (number of source items from 2006 and 2005)

Generally speaking, a journal with a higher IF is said to be “better” than a journal with a lower IF.  In other words, the higher IF is thought to indicate a journal containing higher quality research because that journal’s articles are cited more than the articles published in the journal with a lower IF.  However, like most things in life, what sounds good on paper is actually quite complicated.  There are piles of studies and commentaries on why the IF is not a reliable metric (here is just one example) but I’ll include just some of the main objections here:

• Citation database (i.e., the pool of journals where citations are collected to calculate the IF equation) is incomplete and coverage varies between disciplines.  Also important to note that books are not included in the database.
• Citation database is biased toward English-language publications, especially from American journals.
• Self-citations are not corrected for.
• Heavily cited review articles artificially inflate IF.
• Metrics evolve: see http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009/02/10/isi-draws-fire/ for a recent example.
• Depending on the discipline, the 2 year window (X-1 and X-2) may or may not be representative.  A journal in a fast-moving field will gain more cites in this 2 year window, thus earning a higher IF, than a journal in a slower field that takes longer to earn cites.  Also important to remember that the IF is always behind — the current IF is for year 2007 — so recent improvement in a journal is not visible.

Despite these (and many more) objections, the IF remains one of the standard metrics used to evaluate a journal by authors, publishers, advertisers, librarians and readers.  It is also increasingly used by universities to determine tenure or promotions among faculty and by librarians to determine which journals to cut as their budgets shrink.

In short, although the IF is far from perfect, it should be important to you because it’s important to everyone else — your supervisor, your readers, your librarian, and ultimately your career.  However despite the importance placed on the IF I urge you not to use that as the sole factor in your decision of where to submit your research.  The journal with the highest IF may not be a suitable vehicle for your article for a myriad of reasons — everything from the scope of the journal to page charges and ease of submission should be considered when you select a journal to submit to.

First things first: it’s time to pick a journal to submit your paper to.  If you don’t already have one in mind, the easiest way to find a few candidates is to consult your bibliography and check out the two or three journals that you referenced most often.  Chances are that these journals will be similar in scope to your current paper.

Once you have a few candidates in mind, check out the journals’ websites and pay special attention to any section called Aims & Scope, Mission Statement, About the Journal, etc.  This section should explicitly state what sort of papers are considered by the journal.  Ensure that your paper fits within the journal’s scope (i.e., the range of topics that the journal currently covers), is appropriately formatted and is an acceptable article type (e.g., research article, brief communication, etc.).

This is a critical step that many authors overlook; they make assumptions based on a journal’s title or the fact that they submitted a similar paper there 5 years ago and conclude that the journal is an appropriate vehicle for their current manuscript.  However this is not necessarily the case.  Journals constantly evolve in reaction to the needs of their audiences, and a fast-moving subject field might cause rapid and profound changes to a journal.  Therefore it’s important to do this preliminary check every time you prepare to submit a manuscript.

I don’t know about you, but I’m the type of person that needs a bit of motivation before taking on extra work.  Just in case you’re in this club too, allow me to provide you with some motivation.  If you submit your manuscript “blindly,” i.e., you do not do this preliminary check, you run a high risk of processing delay and/or rejection.  If you submit an inappropriate manuscript to a journal, one of the following may happen:

• Immediate rejection. Your manuscript will be returned to you without peer review; you may or may not be allowed to resubmit depending on what the problem is.  Regardless, the time you spent submitting your manuscript was a bit of a waste, don’t you think?

• Review and rejection. Your manuscript may be processed and forwarded to reviewers for evaluation.  Keep in mind that this process can take anywhere from a few days to a few months depending on submission volume and the availability of the specific reviewers qualified to evaluate your manuscript.  It is entirely possible that a problem with the submission will only be noticed at this stage.  This is especially likely if the paper falls outside the journal’s scope, because it is only at this stage that a qualified expert in the field is reading the paper (as opposed to the site administrator with an English major, like myself, who wouldn’t know a polymer from a polygon).  The inappropriate submission will of course be rejected at this point, and you will of course be excessively unhappy because you’ve wasted a huge amount of time and effort.  A few minutes of preliminary checking before submission would save you this heartache and get your paper out to the world faster.

In short: do your homework!

Most print-ready image files (figures, schemes, etc.) are less than 1 MB in size and can be uploaded on a broadband connection in less than a minute. If your files are larger than 1 MB, they may be larger than necessary. Here are a few suggestions for making your image files smaller and easier to upload without impairing image quality. The more suggestions you can implement, the smaller the files will be.

• LZW compression. When generating a TIF file from any software like Adobe PhotoShop, you are given the option of compressing the file. LZW compression will preserve the image size and resolution but the storage size in bytes will generally be reduced by 80-90%.

• Color mode. Most submission instructions will request image files to be in grayscale or CMYK color mode.  It’s important to note that CMYK will always produce a much larger file because it is saving several layers of image information.  For this reason I recommend using CMYK only for color images.  Grayscale produces much smaller files and is equally efficient in displaying black-and-white or gray images.

• Additional layers. Software programs often add needless extra layers to an image, resulting in a larger file size. An image editor program such as PhotoShop will let you “flatten” the image into one layer. The image will still look the same but it will be a smaller file size.

• Image size. Images should be closely cropped so that little white space shows around the figure. Extra white space not only increases file size but also impedes the image placement process. The files should also be scaled to 100% print size, typically one column wide (~3.5 inches) or two columns wide (~7 inches).

Here’s a sample of relevant topics that I will be covering in future:

• Selecting the right journal
• What the heck is an Impact Factor and why should I care?
• Preparing your manuscript files for submission
• Image file preparation
• Submitting your manuscript
• Great, I’ve submitted…now what?
• The Decision Letter
• Revising your manuscript
• Your manuscript has been accepted.  Before you pop the champagne….

Oh and while we’re at it, I’ll throw in a few disclaimers.  This blog and all content herein are solely my responsibility.  Neither my employer nor any of the owners of the discussed software programs endorse or are responsible for this blog.  This is solely an unofficial advice column and must not be perceived as an official publication of instructions or support.  *Whew.*

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