Hi,

So I'm 14 months into a full time/3 year PhD and my undergraduate supervisor has approached me a couple of times over the past 12 months about publishing my undergraduate dissertation (I didn't complete a masters degree). I'm really excited about the idea of publishing this research as I worked hard at it and the project received several undergraduate awards. As I get deeper into my PhD I really want to focus the little extra time I have on getting this paper submitted.

My supervisor has suggested a journal and even given me some pointers on how to re-draft the 10,000 word dissertation into a 5000-7000 word article suitable for this particular journal.

My concern is that after doing a bit of research into impact factors, the suggested journal has an impact factor of just 0.07!? Apologies if I sound naive, this is all new to me but from what I've read so far that sounds very low?

Should I question my supervisors choice of journal or just be grateful that my undergraduate work is considered publishable!? :)

FYI: my subject area is qualitative psychology.

Thanks for reading.

GM

Impact factor is not the be all and end all. Though unfortunately there is a lot of weight given to the concept in some circles.

Some questions to ask:
1. Is it a new(ish) journal? That can lead to a low impact factor. It may increase over time.
2. Is it a highly specialist journal? Is it the right match for your work?
3. Is your supervisor involved in some way with this journal (e.g. on the editorial board)? That might influence his/her recommendation.
4. Ignoring impact factors, can you think of other journals that might be a better 'fit' for your work, or is this actually the most suitable?

Thanks for your reply Hazy Jane, your advice is really helpful. When I think about it more carefully, my work is particularly well suited to the journal my supervisor suggested and the sample size isn't a high as I would have liked anyway I think I was just initially disheartened to find out about the low impact factor but there are other things to consider (particularly point 2 that you make). I'm feeling a lot more motivated about getting this article drafted now!

Thanks again

GM

If your supervisor is sort of expert in the particular field, then he/she can not go wrong. Besides that, this publication is an added advantage.

From my experience, one has to carefully choose the journal to submit the article. I have an experience of an article being rejected after 5 revisions, then we had to submit to different journal, but another article was accepted after one major revision.

I'm not quite sure I would entirely agree with that. ;)

People within academia are not perfect. Politics can influence decisions. And people at the top are not always fully in tune with new opportunities on the horizon.

That said, people who have experience of publishing are worth listening to when starting out, if only to save yourself the hassle of unsuccessful submissions.

Hi,

I just searched out of curiosity, and the TOP journal in my discipline has and impact factor of 2.7.... so you get the point: impact factor is not essential. New journals have lower impact factors too, as it is estimated over a five-year period.

From my limited experience it is more important to select a journal that many universities can access. The whole point of publishing is to get our work out there, and start a discussion with the other scientists on our field.

Well done for the chance to publish! Definitely worth pursuing it!