Sunday, October 27, 2013

Impact Factors

Deciding on which academic journal to submit your research to can be tough.  Several influences can play into this decision.
A good series of questions to when considering a journal might be as follows:
-How much does it cost to publish?
-Does your paper have color figures?  If so, does this cost more?
-Do they provide open access?
-Do you know any of the editors? Does your professor know/is an editor?
-Are they a predatory publisher?
-Likely the most important question to be asking yourself is what journal Impact Factor (IF) will you be going for? This is a question that I think you should have as a discussion with your supervisors. So you don't come to the discussion empty handed I would suggest creating a list like to the one below for your field. Make sure to include the journals that your supervisors publish in.  Short list a few, discuss further, and pick a winner.

List of Suitable Journals for Paleolimnology with Impact Factors (IFs) (5 year average when available)
-Journal of Paleolimnology (IF: 1.89)
-Environmental Reviews (IF: 3.77)
-Canadian Journal of Forest Research (IF: 1.95)
-Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (IF: 3.021)
-Canadian Journal of Earth Science (IF: 1.16)
-Boreas (IF: 1.91)
-Geology (IF: 4.03)
-The Holocene (IF: 2.56)
-Quaternary Research (IF: 2.58)
-Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology (IF: 2.99)
-Climate of the Past (IF: 2.82)
-Conservation Biology (IF: 3.90)
-Journal of Quaternary Science (IF: 2.31)
-Conservation Letters (IF: 4.08)
-Landscape Ecology (IF: 3.06)
-Ecography (IF: 4.188)
-Nature Geoscience (IF: 8.115)
-Ecosystems (IF: 3.50)
-Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (IF: 2.213)


2 comments:

  1. Great post! Its very useful to us thanks for sharing


     Statistical data collection

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  2. Just submitted to Journal of Palaeolimnology! I think the IF for 2012 is 2.2 and 5yr average is 2.56 now! It's been going up :P

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