影响因子较低的刊物接收的文章水准必定不高？
刊物影响因子较低的原因有哪些？
稿件被拒，仅仅通过改投影响因子较低的刊物就能发表？

Dr. Daniel McGowana给出以下建议：

我注意到很多科学家论文作者——特别是在亚洲国家，可能还有少数西方国家的作者，他们认为低影响因子的期刊接受文章的标准会低于高影响因子的期刊。这是极大的谬论。诚然有少数低影响因子期刊（希望是极少数）的确接受和发表了一些想做写较差的文章，但是如果据此认为这是低影响因子期刊的特点那就是愚蠢了。

 

一份期刊影响因子低有很多原因：可能这份期刊的文章定位在比较专业和狭窄的特殊领域，或者是跟某个特别的地理生态环境相关，或者是与特殊的疾病群体相关，或者这份期刊创刊不久知名度还没有建立起来，或者这份期刊发表的大部分文章是引用文献较少的理论性文章。但是不管是什么情况下，期刊的编辑都将会竭尽全力的维护和提高期刊在对应科学界中的形象，这就意味着他们肯定会用与高影响因子期刊同样的标准来衡量所有提交的稿件。最终，研究者都必须经受住同行评审才能够作为文献进入“人类知识库”，这就是说不论投稿期刊的影响因子的高低，稿件的在技术上的精确性和创新性以及客观的实验描述都要符合学术标准！

 

理文编辑（Edanz China）常常收到重写被拒稿以及收到负面的评审的文章的要求。大多数情况下，我们能够帮助客户阐述清楚期刊编辑和评审的问题，帮他们再次投稿或者重新投稿。但有些时候，文章中有些严重的设计或分析上的纰漏，任何期刊都会拒稿，即使低影响因子的期刊，这样的情况论文怎么润色都没用。我们有责任告诉投稿人：不仅仅需要润色重写，还需要重新分析结果甚至是重做整个实验。不愿意接受这个事实的作者必须清楚：科学界没有计划与执行差劲的研究的存身之地，低影响因子的期刊绝对不是发表不完整和有缺陷的文章的地方。而这也是我写这篇文章的目的：不要天真地以为你的文章被同行评审时的标准与你所投期刊的影响因子是相关的。（同行评审只有一个标准，那就是科学的标准）

 

要避免在同行评审时遇到严重问题，我的建议是实验要预先计划周详再做。开展实验前确保你的实验经过精心设计，有适当的控制；确保你有足够多的实验样本，而且实验样本的统计测试是正确的；精确并且恰当地报道你的结果。在实验前和实验中把这些事情做好将节省你的时间金钱以及以后少些头痛。（陈威华译）

英文原文：

It has recently come to my attention that many scientist–authors in Asian countries, and perhaps also in Western countries, hold the idea that low impact factor journals will accept papers of a lower overall standard than high impact factor journals. This is largely a fallacy. Although some (hopefully very few) journals with low impact factors may indeed accept and publish papers describing research that has been poorly thought out, conducted and/or reported, it would be foolish to assume that this is commonplace.

There are numerous reasons why a given journal might have a low impact factor: it might only describe research in a very narrow, specialized field, or relating to a particular geographic area or patient group, it might be relatively new, or it might publish a large proportion of theoretical papers requiring few references to the literature. However, all journal editors should be striving to protect and improve their journal’s image in the relevant scientific community, and this means holding submitted manuscripts to the same standards that the editors of journals with much higher impact factors apply to the submissions they receive. Ultimately, studies need to stand up to peer review before entering the ‘collective knowledge’ as part of the literature, and this means that criteria regarding technical rigour, novelty and accurate unbiased reporting need to be met, regardless of the impact factor of the target journal.

At Edanz/Liwen Bianji, we are frequently approached by would-be clients asking us to help them to rewrite their paper following rejection from a journal and negative peer review. In many cases we can work with the client to address the concerns of the journal editor and reviewers and help them prepare a re- or new submission. However, where there are major flaws in the study design or analysis that will prevent publication in any journal, even those with low impact factors, regardless of the any rewriting, we are obliged to tell them that more than rewriting is required: reanalysis of data, or worse, repeating whole experiments. Authors unwilling to do this need to be aware that there is no place in the literature for poorly planned and executed research, that journals with low impact factors do not exist to publish incomplete or deficient studies. And that is the purpose of this blog post: to dispel the myth that impact factor correlates with the rigor that your paper will be subjected to during peer review.

My advice is to avoid major problems at the peer review stage by planning well ahead. Ensure that your experiments are well designed with appropriate controls before conducting them; ensure that you have a large enough sample; use the correct statistical tests; and report the results in an accurate and appropriate manner. Getting these things right before and during the research will save you time, money and potential heartache later on.

 

Dr. Daniel McGowan曾任Nature Reviews Neuroscience副编辑，负责约稿，管理和撰写期刊内容。于2006年加入理文编辑（Edanz Group）并从2008年起担任学术总监。

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