Publishing with impact

You have indicated that you would like to know more about impact. Many authors associate ‘impact’ with the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), a commercial metric based on a journal’s citation data. An article published in such an ‘impactful’ journal is then automatically regarded as an ‘impactful’ article. But in fact, such a journal metric says little about the scientific quality of an individual publication. 

That is why, since 2021, Utrecht University has stopped using JIFs in hiring and promotion procedures. Similarly, many research funding bodies, including NWO and ERC, no longer use JIFs when assessing grant proposals. You can read more about the reasoning behind this in the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). 

So don’t fixate on a journal’s impact factor. Instead, ask yourself how you can best reach the audience that will benefit from your research. For instance: 

• Do you wish to address an academic audience only, or is your research actually more relevant to professionals?   
• Is English the most logical language, or would a Dutch-language publication be more suitable for your target audience?   
• Can you generate interest in your work among your readers at an earlier stage by sharing preprints or through open peer review? 
• Is it important to retain the rights to your work, so that you are free to reuse the content for teaching or other purposes?   

Next, choose a journal or publisher that suits these needs.   

Want to know more about publishing with impact? Read our impact stories.