Thread: cancer letters the journal

Hi all:

So I started my graduate study this month and I thought maybe it's time to get off my lazy ass and start reading some papers on a regular basis. So I downloaded the Journal Citation Report from 2009 and went through the list from the ones with the highest Impact Factor to the lowest (I know IF is not perfect but you have to admit it is the best out there and also the only available one). Anyways I've decided to stop at Journal of Biological Chemistry not only because the IF is only 5.52 but also because, well, it is JBC.

However, since I'm interested in breast cancer, I've also noticed some cancer-related journals with IF below 5.52. These journals include things like:

breast cancer research
molecular cancer therapy
international journal of cancer
cancer letters
etc.

My question is, should I include these journals in my weekly reading list? Some of these journals sound kinda sketchy to me, like "internation journal of cancer" (I've always thought that I should stay away from anything with "international" in its title). Some I've heard of, like "cancer letters" or "breast cancer research", but I wonder how reliable the reports from these journal are and is it even worth the time to read them. I'm not really trying to bash these journals but if the project is really going somewhere, wouldn't the group publish their results at least on journals like "oncogene" or "cancer research". Also keep in mind that I'm only trying to build a weekly reading list. If I need to do some literature scavenger hunt, then I would use pubmed to find any relevant papers regardless of the name of the journal. So yeah, I would be glad to hear people's thoughts on this. Thanks.

P.S. Below is my current list. Any suggestions are appreciated.
NATURE
SCIENCE
P NATL ACAD SCI USA
oncogene
JBC
CELL
GENE DEV
J CELL BIOL
EMBO J
NAT GENET
CANCER CELL
NAT BIOTECHNOL
NAT CELL BIOL
CELL STEM CELL
J CLIN INVEST
J EXP MED
MOL CELL
DEV CELL
PLOS BIOL
current biology
AM J HUM GENET
STEM CELLS
CELL DEATH DIFFER

still waiting....

Hi there,

Personally the only Jounral I read cover-to-cover every week is Nature. I love Nature. Haven't been able to read it for the last couple of weeks and it's killing me hopefully that will change as of Tuesday...

Anyhow, for in-depth and comprehensive literature reviews, I would advise you to stick with what you've already been doing and not be too 'snobbish' about the impact factor of the Journal that you're reading. You can normally rely on high IF Journals to deliver quality research, but sometimes quality research can be found in lower IF Journals, perhaps published by researchers who perhaps haven't had the privelege of an easy path in Science and who have been short on breaks!

In conclusion - Nature all the way.

:P

Tridimity.