The Race for Visibility and Value

Abstract

We the members of the Editorial team of Indian Journal of Microbiology (INJM) are extremely thankful to all those who believe in the values of this journal. This is evident from the fact that quite a few of you have published your quality work with us. In the present scenario, the value of the work is judged from the citations it receives, which happens with time only. However, at the time of publication, people judge the quality of the work from the impact factor (IF) of the journal, where your precious work has been published. Now, this race to get recognized through IF is getting fierce. We are left with hardly any option but to participate in it and run, that too very fast lest we are left behind among the muck. It is important to move forward and get recognized. It’s time to have a few wins among your precious possessions. IF of INJM for 2012 will be declared very soon in June/July 2013. Since it will be based on the papers published in 2010 and 2011 but cited in 2012, there is little which we can do now. We will be facing the reality and hoping for the best to achieve a respectable IF. Our hopes are quite high in view of the fact that there are quite a few papers which have been cited in Journals of high IF, such as—Nature Reviews Microbiology, Biotechnology Advances, Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Critical Reviews in Environmental Science, FEMS Microbiology, Infection and Immunity, ISME Journal, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Bioresource Technology, PLoS One, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, etc. We must acknowledge the authors of these contributions, which have taken INJM to a higher platform and improved it visibility among the researchers worldwide. It also gives confidence to those who hesitate to publish their prestigious and important works in INJM, fearing that these may go unnoticed. With around 6,500 subscribers and 3,400 Life members of AMI going through these articles, INJM is as good as an “Open Access” journal. Since we have already seen Vol. 53(1) of INJM in March 2013, so in our own interest, we need to act in a focused manner. To enhance the visibility of our work we need to cite our present work (published in INJM) in our subsequent publications (in journals other than INJM) but to get it recognized (enhanced IF of INJM) we need to cite papers (of other authors, self citation will not prove effective) preferably from INJM published in 2011, 2012, 2013 and from Online First papers as well. INJM Vol. 53(2) is in your hands and you can expect the rest to follow soon. We very strongly believe that you will be submitting your innovative and novel works in future as well and the citations of your work will help us improve the status and image of INJM.