Nano Today

If you take a look at the data of Nano Today in JCR, you will see that in 2020, the impact factor calculation year, Nano Today published 85 reviews with a median citation of 18.5, as well as around 23 articles with a median citation of 4. There are also a small number of communications. You will understand how this impact factor is calculated by looking at it yourself. When the proportion of reviews in a journal, especially in the field of nanotechnology, is close to 80%, a low impact factor is not acceptable. Many domestic journals and journals with a majority of Chinese editors are manipulating impact factors, such as increasing the proportion of reviews (a normal journal should have a review proportion between 5-10%, but many domestic journals can reach 60-70%), increasing the proportion of correspondence/brief communications (these types of communication articles only increase the total citations of the journal but do not appear in the denominator of the article count, so it is a major weapon to increase the impact factor, such as the correspondence proportion in journals like Cell Discovery, Protein and Cell, Cellular and Molecular Immunology can reach 50%).

To be fair, this journal is well-known for its connections. It's only natural for it to be in the second-tier category. It publishes 100 articles a year, mostly reviews, and most of them are from insiders who are part of the circle. There are only a limited number of first-tier journals, and this kind of journal occupying a spot in the first-tier category makes it more difficult for others to submit their manuscripts. It's not a pretty sight. Furthermore, its sister journal "Materials Today" is also the same. If a non-connected group has decent manuscripts, they usually choose to submit them to journals like AM, AFM, AEM. Look at "Angew" and "JACS," their publication volume is over 2000, and even "Nano Energy" has a publication volume of over 1000. The proportion of reviews is also less than 10%. I don't understand what people are complaining about regarding this journal. I suspect those who complain are the ones who have been rejected by this journal before.