worth of an article

[lordy99]

hi

i have a question conserning the impact factor of an article. usually you can simply search for the impact factor on the isiknowledge homepage.
what happens if your article gets selected for the cover of the journal? most people say thats worth much more than a "normal" article. But how much more? any ideas and how would you make this visible in your publication-list/cv?

thx
lordy

[admin]

Hello,
that is great news that you made the cover.
The most I could muster was Table of Contents with a picture lol...

I would simply mention on the CV that the publication made the cover or better yet do as I did for my applications, simply attach the copy of the cover of the journal with the 1rst (or more) pages of your paper.

There are many ways though to analyze what made a good paper:

- is it whats hot at the moment? Time will tell as many "hot" topics dont mean very much in the science world later (ie they become old news and not well used later)

- what is in a high impact journal - as many scientists will tell you there many really crappy papers in good journals (even fake studies!). Actually some of the most referenced papers are in low impact journals. Obviously there are many amazing studies published in high impact journals as well.

- there is also the number of people that referenced your work. If your work has any "impact" or people actually read it, you should get some references over the years. Many people cite this in their CV. I forgot the term however there is an analysis on this along with impact (its analyzed in years).

Sadly most publications NEVER (yes its sad I think its 50% or more) get referenced (prompting for a study in why we should even do research in some areas - ie the research has not utility although its a very contested thing at the moment).

I believe much of the basis of whether you get accepted into a high impact journal is whether you can get people to reference your paper. You must keep this in mind. Obviously the more references your paper generates, the more impact it can give the journal.

opinions will differ but those are just some of mine.

Congrats on the cover though thats awesome.