Do publications in low-impact journals help or hurt a CV?

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Academic Hiring
• Scholarly Publishing

Background:

• The academic job market, particularly for tenure-track positions in psychology, heavily relies on publication records for candidate evaluation.
• The perceived value of publications in low-impact versus high-impact journals remains a critical question for early-career researchers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of "weak" publications in low-impact psychology journals on the evaluation of hypothetical tenure-track job applicants.
• To determine if these publications are valued intrinsically or as indicators of future strong publications.

Main Methods:

• Four experiments were conducted using psychology professors as participants.
• Participants evaluated hypothetical psychology job applicants with varying publication profiles, including strong and weak publications in different journal tiers.

Main Results:

• Applicants with added weak publications were rated as stronger candidates compared to those without.
• Weak publications were valued intrinsically and not solely as predictors of future strong publications.
• Increased numbers of weak publications did not proportionally increase perceived applicant strength beyond a certain threshold.
• Weak publications were associated with perceptions of increased applicant hard work and innovative potential.

Conclusions:

• Publishing in low-impact journals can positively influence academic hiring decisions in psychology.
• The findings suggest that the academic market may reward quantity and perceived effort, even from less prestigious outlets.
• Early-career psychologists are advised to consider publishing in a range of journals, balancing impact with publication volume, provided high-impact publications are not compromised.