I'm currently a PhD student outside the US. I recently submitted my work (1st author) as an original article, but the editor-in-chief suggested resubmitting it as a letter. The letters in the journal had high-quality figures(4-5 figures/tables) but significantly shorter than original articles. The letter are peer-reviewd as well.
Considering my future plans (postdoc or employment in the US), which option should I choose? Aim for a high IF journal with a letter or a lower IF journal with an original article? Would publishing as a letter negatively impact my chances for US employment or scholarships? Please help....I really would appreciate any advices...
Thanks
This is off-topic here. I suggest https://academia.stackexchange.com/
Anyway, since hiring procedures in academia are much focused on IF and reputation I would go for the letter. Letter just means that you need to squeeze your message into far too few words which often makes letters hard and a pain to read. But that's the readers problem, not yours. Letter means inflated supplement to actually proof the main message that you send in the few words of the main text. Despite that PIs will say they don't...they all look at which journal you published in, not so much the type of publication, unless it's not a review or book article.
From the perspective of a Chinese, I'd like to choose a letter in a famous journal with a high IF. If I'm a PI, I think they are both OK, I emphasise the impact and quality of the research.