Hi,
I am writing my Literature Review chapter at the moment and I was wondering if the journals that I cite should always have an impact factor. My PhD is in engineering.

Thank you,
A.

I've been told, cite whatever supports your point. BUT try to use journals that are better rated. For publications I try not to use any lower impact factor journals in my lit reviews (and obviously use articles from the journal you are trying to submit to)

I'm not sure what you're asking. If you're asking whether you need to cite the impact factor, well, I'm sure you don't. I've never seen anything where impact factor is cited. If you're asking whether any journals you cite need to be journals with impact factors, then I'm not sure. I thought all journals had impact factors...

Err shouldn't you be citing the most relevant material whether that is journals or other sources (eg governement reports). Don't ignore somethign that is key just because it doesn't have a high impact factor (and impact factors vary so much by subject that a high one in one discipline would be considered very low in another)

ah yes, agree in general. But my sup does prefer me to use higher impact citations where possible. Obviously government reports etc are the exception. But she does scan my reference list and if there are too many 'journal of never heard ofs' she asks me to go and find better sources.

Hey! Personally I would just cite whatever is most relevant, I certainly don't worry about impact factors when I cite work, although obviously if it's a journal article I prefer it to be peer-reviewed. Even if a journal has a low impact factor, that's based on every article in the journal- you can have a journal with a really low impact factor but with an article that has been cited 100s of times! So I wouldn't worry about it- sometimes people publish really good pieces of work in journals with lower impact factors just because they are in a rush to get it accepted and in print and some of the really top journals actually take longer! Or they might want it to reach a really specific readership or something. There are all sorts of reasons people might apply to lower impact journals- it doesn't mean their article is rubbish! Best, KB

hey just strted my phd in accounitng. and my sup send me to review top accounting journal to see if there is anything on my intended topic for the last 10 yrs. i founda almost nil publication coz am trying accounting in non profits. but some good articles ave been published outside accounting. so am using them. but u ave to be pretty sure there is no relevant article for u to use.