Q: What is the role of high-quality articles in the rating of a publication?

High-quality articles have a major role in boosting the rating of the journal that publishes those articles. Now, a widely accepted measure of the quality of a research paper, or article, is the number of times that paper is cited, or referred to, in other papers. The number of times a paper is cited is taken as its impact. The more often a given paper is cited, the higher is its impact.

The same concept works with journals. The more often papers published in a given journal are cited in other papers, the higher the impact factor (IF) of that journal. However, this favors those journals that publish more papers. That’s why the number of citations gathered by a journal are divided by the number of articles published in that journal.

Note that the citing papers can also be from the same journal as the cited papers. However, if such self-citation exceeds 10%, it often casts some doubts on the process and calls for further scrutiny.

For more on the IF and other parameters of a journal’s rating or worth, you may also refer to this article: The impact factor and other measures of journal prestige

For more on what makes a high-quality article, you may go through this similar question from earlier: What makes a published article a high quality one?

And to make your own writing of a higher caliber, you may find it useful to know about the Master Research Writing learning path on R Upskill, a sister brand providing learning programs for researchers. Master Research Writing is a deep dive into research writing, comprising 20 courses. But you may get a taste of it through the limited period offer that makes all learning programs free for two weeks. Do feel free to explore R Upskill.

Hope that helps. All the best for your writing!