Answer
Identifying the best place to publish research involves consideration of many factors, including:
- Journal aim and scope
- Publication of similar work
- Journal rankings and measures of journal impact
- Demonstration of good publishing practices
Welch compiled the information below to help guide a researcher through the decision-making process.
Think. Check. Submit.
“Think. Check. Submit. is a campaign to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research. It is a simple checklist researchers can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.”
Retrieved from http://thinkchecksubmit.org/about/
Locating Journals
Select the subject to view available journals by subject. Journals are sorted according to the following journal rankings: Journal Impact Factor, Citescore, Scimago Journal & Country Rank, and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP).
Enter the unpublished article’s title and abstract info into this tool to determine possible sites for publication. Note: Covers only journals published by Elsevier.
Enter the unpublished article’s title and/or abstract to determine possible sites for publication. It only covers journals in MEDLINE, regardless of publisher.
Enter the unpublished article’s title and abstract into this tool to determine possible sites for publication. Note: Covers only journals published by Springer.
A search tool that allows you to paste in text and identify similar text in MEDLINE. Note: Only covers journals in MEDLINE.
Use the Browse Subjects feature, and select Journals to find quality Open Access Journals. Note: Covers only Open Access Journals.
Relies on data in PubMed to help you determine where to publish your research. Note: JANE tags journals indexed and found in MEDLINE and DOAJ.
Allows you to search by keyword, journal name, abstract and more. Pulls results from publicly available data sources like Thomson Reuters’ annual Journal Citation Reports®.
Journal Metrics
- InCites™ Journal Citation Reports®
Find a variety of metrics for journal quality, including impact factor, immediacy index, Eigenfactor score, and article influence score. Searchable by journal name and browsable by research category. - SCImago Journal & Country Rank
Access journal rankings based on citation data from the Scopus database. Journals can be grouped by major thematic areas and specific subject categories. - Scopus
In search results, click on the journal title to view journal metrics. Scopus will give you SJR (SCImago Journal Rank), IPP (Impact per Publication), and SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper) measurements. - Web of Science
In search results, click on the journal title to view journal metrics. In Web of Science, view its IF (Impact Factor) and JCR (Journal Citation Reports) rankings. - Eigenfactor
Find an article’s Eigenfactor® and Article Influence Score® to evaluate the influence of a journal.
General Information About Journals
- JHU Catalog (Catalyst): Use the “Journal title” search in the catalog to determine if the JHU Libraries subscribe to a particular journal.
- Journals in PubMed and Other NCBI Databases: Search the catalog of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for journals referenced by NCBI databases, including PubMed. Each catalog record indicates key journal details, including ISSN, abbreviations, and whether its articles are currently indexed for MEDLINE.
- Ulrich's Periodical Directory: Search this comprehensive database of serial publications for key details about journals, including previous titles, publishers, ISSNs, URLs, indexing, and English versions of foreign titles.
Search for Open Access Journals
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Use the Browse Subjects feature, and select Journals to find quality Open Access Journals. Note: Covers only Open Access Journals. - Enago Open Access Journal Finder: Paste in content from your publication to access a shortlist of quality Open Access Journals that are relevant to you. This tool searches against DOAJ’s list of journals.
Publishing in an Open Access Journal allows you to share your work widely and bypass permission and paywall barriers so the public has greater access to your work. However, predatory publishers, many disguised as Open Access Journals, may solicit you for your research. If you encounter a potential predatory publisher, take the time to analyze the journal or publisher before submitting work to make sure they are not a predatory journal or publisher. Use the Think.Check.Submit method to assess a potential journal.
You can also take the following steps:
- Search DOAJ and MEDLINE to see if the journal is listed
- Search Google for the journal/publisher
- Look up the location of the publisher to see what appears on a map
- Look for spelling errors on the publisher's website and in the solicitation email message
- Check the editorial board for names you may recognize
- Ask your Welch informationist