Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of being an invited speaker at DoKDoK, the 5th Student-organized conference on Optics, held each year at Oppurg Castle, close to Jena. I participated in a panel discussion in the context of Dok’s4Dok’s, to present my experiences and views on publishing in high impact and/or low(er) impact journals. Some of the questions raised included:

What are benefits and drawbacks of publishing in either type of journal? Which one is more worthwhile in terms of science? Which is more important in terms of increasing the likelihood of a successful academic career?

Panel member Silvio Fuchs had different opinions in some circumstances, and many of the Masters and PhD students were very keen to find out more, asking us several questions throughout. It was a sitmulating hour of discussion, and I had the chance to consolidate some of my own opinions on this topic in the process.

For an introduction to the subject, this comic by PhDComics is a good place to start!