Senior student publishing a first paper

[patric44]

hi guys
I am a senior student major in physics and i have a little question : recently i was trying to publish a paper in a journal with an impact factor of about 0.4 and a cite score of 1 its indexed in the Scimago database, after submitting the paper i got a moderate revision as a first decision and I am happy with that i am working on the revision now , and i have a little concern, will it be bad for me in the future as a researcher to have some papers in low IF journals ?
another question : if the paper i published is not very strong (say its an idea for teaching a physical concept or a proposed physical experiment) will it be bad for my resume in the future ?

 

[Gordianus]

If the referees say your paper is good enough to be published I think that's good news. You can always aim at a higher IF journal in the future.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Worry more about the content of your papers than the IF of the journals.

In Physics, the reputation of the journals is more important than the impact factors. But no one is going to hold journals with poor reputations against you for stuff you publish while a student. If you do good work, eventually you should have some things published in higher tier journals.

No one will ever say, "Sure he's got a bunch of PRLs with hundreds of citations, but he must be a lousy physicist - look at that journal with an IF of 0.4 he published in as a student."

 

[patric44]

Worry more about the content of your papers than the IF of the journals.

In Physics, the reputation of the journals is more important than the impact factors. But no one is going to hold journals with poor reputations against you for stuff you publish while a student. If you do good work, eventually you should have some things published in higher tier journals.

No one will ever say, "Sure he's got a bunch of PRLs with hundreds of citations, but he must be a lousy physicist - look at that journal with an IF of 0.4 he published in as a student."

thanks for these valuable words, I have a little question, you said "Worry more about the content of your papers than the IF of the journals" in that you mean if my paper is somehow weak as i pointed i shouldn't publish it, or you mean in general if the paper has a scientific error or something ?

 

[f95toli]

As long as the paper is technically sound and not "weird" in any way (you are not e.g. proposing a method for time travel) I can't see any drawback in publishing a paper. Just about everyone publishes low impact papers occasionally (in say conference proceedings since it then often takes a LONG time before the manuscripts are actually published).
Remember that a paper not being cited is not the same thing as it not being read; a good paper will usually find an audience as long as it is published somewhere where people can actually find and read it and it is indexed by the search engines. I would suggest also uploading the paper to the arXiv unless you have a very good reason not to.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

thanks for these valuable words, I have a little question, you said "Worry more about the content of your papers than the IF of the journals" in that you mean if my paper is somehow weak as i pointed i shouldn't publish it, or you mean in general if the paper has a scientific error or something ?

"Weak" is an ambiguous term. I don't worry about the perceived importance in my papers or the papers of students I mentor. Many opportunities for student publication are in areas perceived as less important. I focus more on correctness - not just on technical correctness in the method and results section - but also on a correct assessment of value in the discussion section.

Overstating experimental validation for a theoretical or computational contribution is common error. Likewise, overstating the impact or generality of an experimental result is a common error. It is better to show humility and understate these things.