I have this one project that is so far my magnus opus. It started out with some really basic science that has blossomed into some uncharted territory and is changing the way the biomedical community approaches a specific type of disease. Then this was tied into some design work and has resulted in a physical device that is giving some pretty interesting preclinical data and treating an aspect of disease thought untreatable. I’m in talks with some physicians about ways to get this into the clinic and maybe creating a start-up built from this. I’ve been delaying publishing a lot of this because it has the makings of an incredible megamanuscript for a high-profile journal. Higher than any impact factor I’ve ever even tried for. One of those journals that have a pre-review before it can even go before the ‘real’ reviewers. I submitted earlier this year and just got notice it’s past pre-review and now in the ‘real’ review stage. I’m nervous, but the students are not. The main student that worked on this has stated that she would rather just have a few smaller ones to pad her CV, and can’t seem to grasp the importance of the higher impact.
I hate pulling rank in a situation like this, but it has to happen to gather some traction rather than get lost in the web of smaller-impact journals. She is definitely unhappy about this because she wants to pad her CV. I’m hoping that once this (hopefully) accepted that she realizes the benefit. I remember being the same way, but learned that it’s easier to get your name out there when it’s attached to good high-profile work. It will take time, I guess. I just don’t want to be a lab that’s constantly putting out tech briefs in low impact journals just to get my numbers up. That being said, I’ve realized that this journal is definitely a ‘boys club’, so convincing them our work belongs is going to be a battle. One that I’m very much willing to fight.
academic infiltration 