中文引言：

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 McGowan 将给出哪些积极建议？

博客原文：

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.