Nature or Physical Review Letters?

[cquayhl]

This may seem like a completely random question and I don't if people will know the answer (or if there is an answer), but does anyone know which journal is more recognised/respected in Malaysia: Nature (or Science for that matter) or Physical Review Letters? Also, does it really matter? (I'm talking in terms of how your CV looks when you're applying for teaching posts back home.)

On some level it seems ridiculous that I'm asking this question, but I have heard things like 'Please just going and fill out that piece of paper to get your masters. It'll look funny if you have just "BA, PhD" on your CV.' And of course, one gets all the time 'You chose Stanford over Harvard? Why? Where is Stanford anyway? KL?' I don't know if this perception of how hiring works (i.e. that it depends on some very inaccurate and random perceptions) is accurate. Thanks.

Charis.

[abdullah]

And of course, one gets all the time 'You chose Stanford over Harvard? Why? Where is Stanford anyway? KL?' I don't know if this perception of how hiring works (i.e. that it depends on some very inaccurate and random perceptions) is accurate.

Maintain tact, humility, and honesty. Wincing and rolling one's eyes to the heaven are tempting, but avoid it (and if you can't, then keep them well inside).

One good tactic to dealing with such questions is to keep them short, even to the point of being over-brief. If asked such a question, try the response, "No, it's in Silicon Valley," smile (sincerely!), and leave it at that.

It takes wisdom to deal with ignorant questions. Gently take control of the discussion without causing offense. Being better qualified to take the reins, you're not only doing yourself a favor, you're also doing your interlocutor one as well.

Allow the questioner to realize by themselves that they are out of their depth. And yes, this may take time requiring much patience, but there's no wisdom without patience.

[dinna_g]

stanford not so popular in malaysia ke? weird.. half of the malaysians i know wants to go to stanford..

anyway, i have a q for you. is physical review letter more popular than apl or jap? if i'm not mistaken, a grad student i used to work with said that the most read journal is apl and jap. but i guess nature and science are the oldest journal, hence, are more respectable.

IMO, it may not matter back home as to which journal you published in. i'm sure either will look just as good in your CV. if anyone in recom has contact with any professor and/or lecturer back home, i'm sure he/she can find it out for you.

p/s: not interested in staying here after you're done with your phd? dont wanna try a post-doc job or huge companies like intel or ibm?

[cquayhl]

Dinna,

PRL is different from APL and JAP. So far as I can tell, PRL papers are 'of general interest to the physics community'. The review process takes a while and reviewers can be quite nit-picky. APL is more focussed on applied stuff, rather than on basic science. Reviewers are less nit-picky and the quality of papers varies over a wider range.

The relation of APL to JAP is like that of PRL to the other Physical Review journals, e.g. PRB, PRE and so on.

This is just my impression, of course.

I'm mostly trying to keep my options open...

I think you are right...it probably doesn't matter in the end. Most things don't that we worry about, in the long run.

Abdullah,

Thanks for your wise words, although I'm not concerned so much with changing perceptions at the moment as with finding out what they are are and working around them.

This is why I did fill out that form to get my MS. And also why I'll probably try to sit an SPM BM July paper at some point. Maybe I'm being a little too paranoid. Although I hear the BM thing is actually required for the civil service.

Charis.

[dinna_g]

Gotcha!

Yeah, I noticed that there are some poorly written papers in apl. maybe prl is more picky in the physics world. I read more apl & jap papers, because they are more related to my stuff in general. anyways, good luck with your job applications. are you graduating soon?

[digimushu]

Jeeezz..there are journals/conferences back home?

i've been hunting for conferences back home which are related to my research but could not find any. Damn...

if there is, I might get a free ticket home to present the paper(yeayyy)

*siGh*

[cquayhl]

Jeeezz..there are journals/conferences back home?

i've been hunting for conferences back home which are related to my research but could not find any. Damn...

if there is, I might get a free ticket home to present the paper(yeayyy)

*siGh*

Continuing a thread that should probably die already...

Hey digimushu,

The journals we're talking about are all put out by American and British organisations...

Yeah, I've been looking for conferences at home as well. Maybe we should organise one? :-P

Only half kidding. Some of us at ReCom and MF (www.malaysiaforum.org) have been throwing around some ideas for a cirtual 'journal', something like vjnano.org or aldaily.com or xxx.lanl.gov, for research by Malaysians or on Malaysia. So far, it's jsut an idea. But if you're interested, let me know and I'll connect you to the relevant people.

Dinna,

No, I have a couple more years and a few more experiments. I'm just worrying ahead of time. As usual. :-)

Charis.

[digimushu]

Hey digimushu,

The journals we're talking about are all put out by American and British organisations...

Yeah, I've been looking for conferences at home as well. Maybe we should organise one?

Only half kidding. Some of us at ReCom and MF (www.malaysiaforum.org) have been throwing around some ideas for a cirtual 'journal', something like vjnano.org or aldaily.com or xxx.lanl.gov, for research by Malaysians or on Malaysia. So far, it's jsut an idea. But if you're interested, let me know and I'll connect you to the relevant people.



cquayhl,

please feel free to PM me about this, I'm interested, although my work is very rare and no one wants to work with it..

[dinna_g]

digimushu,

what's your research is about.. i'm interested to know..

[digimushu]

oh nothing much,

i just make humvees go faster and safer..

:D

[ph7klw]

NATURE. It is the most pretigious journal in the world. If you can not get into nature, try SCIENCE.
If you think you can get into NATURE, it is completely worth the effort to submit in NATURE. A paper in NATURE opens the door of oppurtunity for you in research. Not a lot of engineering papers make it into NATURE.

Nature is like MIT.
Physical review letter is like Imperial College.

[wawa]

Personally I don't really know which one's much better in terms of quality etc. But Nature has more prestige I guess. My sup and co-supervisor had this article in Nature, and my co-sup calls it the highlight of his career, so i guess its nature over the others. :D