ABSTRACT
Impact factors (IFs) are a measure of how often a journal's papers get cited. In response to the rise of predatory journals companies have sprung up offering alternative IFs, so do check the exact name and do not assume that all IFs are equal. In the efforts to involve all the right people and to jump through the hoops created by peer review it is easy to overlook informal review. The purpose of in-house review is to reduce the burden on external reviewers by sifting out submissions that are unsuitable for a particular journal. Many universities have created online repositories for work published by their staff and students. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors's Recommendations and other statements provide much useful information about topics such as authorship and overlapping publications that are often not covered in individual journal instructions, so they are worth reading even if people plan to publish in a journal that has not formally endorsed them.
