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I'm currently working on a technical report which will be published by the sponsor organization - and also given significant publicity by them for campaigning purposes.

I'm wondering if it's worth also submitting this for publication in a journal (obviously taking care to fulfil journal requirements for novelty - I expect there are sufficient technical details we can expand on so that won't be an issue).

The question is whether a Q2/Q3 journal publication is viewed as having any more prestige than a tech report with an external sponsor and promoter? The field is computer science.

Addressing DCTLib's question

  • In this case I don't think the peer reviewed QA stamp will add much to the research, as it will lag behind the necessary time scale for impact (also if we're lucky our report will encourage a government body to replicate the research, thereby adding their own QA). Not saying it's not worth having, but any time I spend on this is time taken from other work I'm trying to publish also.
  • The likely view of hiring/promotion committees is relevant, yes
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    Can your question perhaps be concretized? "I guess" is not good to have in a question. So what are you after? "Prestige" is probably not the main reason for publishing in a journal, but rather to add the "peer reviewed" basic quality assurance stamp that other researchers will be looking for, not mentioning hiring committees for academic positions.
    – DCTLib
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 11:54
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    If you bring a technical report to a paper format, you usually compress&remove technical details, not the contrary.
    – EarlGrey
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 11:56
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    You probably need permission of the sponsor for anything you publish. Your contract may specify what is possible.
    – Buffy
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 11:59
  • @Buffy good point. We do have provision in our contract to publish separately
    – Sideshow Bob
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 12:27
  • @DCTLib see edits, thank you
    – Sideshow Bob
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 12:36

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It is hard to judge an individual case but I can give a few thoughts. If the sponsor "publishes" the technical report, then you may have copyright issues to deal with, so consider that. If they hold copyright (rather than a publisher) you can probably get a license from them.

However, another publisher, such as a journal, may not be interested in publishing something already published, depending on the original venue. If it "seems like" something similar to a preprint then you may be ok.

Furthermore, while there is a delay, the feedback you get from a review process will probably be valuable, assuming you produce something the journal will consider. So far, I'd guess the only review has been internal with only interested parties involved. The independence of a journal review has (some) value.

An alternative, however, that might be preferable, and which you seem to suggest, is that you could write a follow on paper - and extension - that extends the tech report with new (novel?) information and conclusions. That would resolve all of the above issues should they be a concern.

Finally, however you do it, journal publishing will probably give additional visibility to your work, never mind prestige, that can be valuable in itself.

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