Dear Editor,

I read with great interest the recent correspondence [1] congratulating the Indian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery on the success of having achieved an impact factor (IF) of 0.7. While it is a matter of great pride for us that the journal has attained respectability, reputation and readership, thanks to the painstaking and valiant efforts of all the previous editors and the particularly successful tenure of the current editor, the way forward needs some deliberation. How do we raise the reputation of the journal further? By publishing our best research in our journal, of course. But do we do it? All of us are guilty of sending our best work to the highest impact factor journals possible. It is a chicken and egg story. Which comes first? Our best work published in our journal leading to, eventually, a better quality journal with a higher IF or forever sending only case reports and other work refused by other higher ranked journals to ours as a last resort. In today’s world of internet based searches on Pubmed, Scopus and Google scholar, our research should be visible with appropriately chosen key words, regardless of where it is published. Perhaps the lead should be taken by those of us of a certain vintage! Nothing more is to be gained professionally or academically by chasing a prestigious journal. Perhaps, if we start sending our best work to our own journal, over a period of time, the next generation will inherit a prestigious and high quality journal that better captures our realities, challenges and yes…..best science!