the answer is always it depends but as a general rule of thumb you want a review article good textbook practice guideline or other secondary source that was published in the last five years or maybe ten if there isn t much published on the subject Impact factors are a disputed criterion The IF for an important niche journal will be much lower than the IF for an unimportant general journal similarly a New Zealand journal like this one will have a lower IF than an otherwise identical American journal Your idea of starting small is often a good one