My PhD thesis is due around October, 2015 (~6 months ahead of the time of writing this).
I would like to submit a journal paper which contains substantial results from my research, mainly the reasons for this are:
It will be peer reviewed.
It will be useful to others in the same area
I can cite it in my thesis
- I can use parts of it that have already been written in my thesis
I have found two appropriate journals, one more prestigious than the other. One of them says it will be reviewed in 6 week (the less prestigious of the two), and the other says it is likely to not be reviewed by October.
It's now difficult to decide which to submit to, and this depends on if it's 'ok' to cite a paper which is currently in review, in my own thesis. Ultimately, I will have done the work and just want to be able to metaphorically point at it and say, "look, this is substantial and good enough to be published, this is why I have submitted separately". I believe that the viva, and writing the thesis will be easier with a number of accepted papers (I feel this is a sad truth, but true nonetheless).
I have viewed a similar question here: How to cite my own submitted but not yet published work?
However this is regarding citing published work in other papers, whereas the difference here is that I am only citing it in my own thesis (hopefully others will cite it if it's accepted and useful, which I believe there is a good chance it is).
Any advice would be great and really appreciated.