Introduction to how journals and other research publications work? I need a comprehensive introduction to how research journals work and conferences relevant to the point of view of a student, and as a researcher.

Although I have read many research papers, I think I still don't understand a lot of the basics. I googled my problem and maybe I am not searching it right but I came to know what the volume number, issue number, etc mean just yesterday from here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nmp/sonet/rlos/ebp/journals/what_are_journals/index.html. This was helpful but I still need to know more e.g. what does impact factor mean, how important is this metric, who has the right of distributing the article considering I want my research to be publicly and freely available, what is general process of writing and review, etc.

Maybe I am not searching for the right terms. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.
what does impact factor mean


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor


  how important is this metric 


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4150161/


  who has the right of distributing the
  article considering I want my research to be publicly and freely
  available


The publisher is typically granted sole distribution rights, with exceptions for distribution via personal websites and sites such as arXiv


  what is general process of writing and review


That's been answered elsewhere on this forum.