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Selecting Publication Venues: Where to Publish?

Selecting Publication Venues

Find journals in your field.

  • Journal Citation Reports (JCR) list journals by category and you can examine their impact factor within that field

  • Scopus provides cite score metrics for indexed journals.   You can look at journal lists by category and examine their citescore within that field.  (Once in Scopus, click on on sources at the top of the database screen).

  • SCIMago Journal and Country Rank lists journals by category and you can examine their rank within that field
  • Ulrich's Periodicals Directory provides information on this of a journal, publisher information, open access status, and what databases index the journal.

Use the following criteria to help select reputable scholarly journals or further evaluate journals for the purpose of publishing your work:

  • What ethical commitments has the journal made?  
  • Consult Ulrich's Periodicals Directory which can provide information about the history of a journal, publisher information, open access status, and what databases index the journal. A refereed journal will have a "refereed" icon next to the title.
  • Check DOAJ.org for journal (open access journals only) - DOAJ is an online directory that indexes open access, peer-reviewed journals.  
  • Talk to your colleagues - ask if the feedback provided by the journal and its reviewers is valuable and appropriately critical to help improve the paper
  • Seek out the acceptance rate of the journal

Journal Matching Tools

Journal matching tools may allow you to identify journals that match the topic of your research.

Ethics in Publishing

The Committee on Publication Ethics is "a forum for editors and publishers of peer reviewed journals to discuss all aspects of publication ethics".

The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association is a forum for open access publishers.  Membership is vetted and can be an indication of publisher quality

Evaluating Journal Quality and Reputation

Principles of Transparency

1. Peer review process: All of a journal’s content, apart from any editorial material that is clearly marked as such, shall be subjected to peer review. Peer review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from reviewers expert in the field who are not part of the journal’s editorial staff. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s peer review procedures, shall be clearly described on the journal’s Web site.

2. Governing Body: Journals shall have editorial boards or other governing bodies whose members are recognized experts in the subject areas included within the journal’s scope. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors shall be provided on the journal’s Web site.

3. Editorial team/contact information Journals shall provide the full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors on the journal’s Web site as well as contact information for the editorial office.

4. Author fees: Any fees or charges that are required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in the journal shall be clearly stated in a place that is easy for potential authors to find prior to submitting their manuscripts for review or explained to authors before they begin preparing their manuscript for submission.

5. Copyright: Copyright and licensing information shall be clearly described on the journal’s Web site, and licensing terms shall be indicated on all published articles, both HTML and PDFs.

6. Identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: Publishers and editors shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. In no case shall a journal or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the event that a journal’s publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in their journal – the publisher or editor shall follow COPE’s guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing with allegations.

7. Ownership and management: Information about the ownership and/or management of a journal shall be clearly indicated on the journal’s Web site. Publishers shall not use organizational names that would mislead potential authors and editors about the nature of the journal’s owner.

8. Web site: A journal’s Web site, including the text that it contains, shall demonstrate that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards.

9. Name of journal: The Journal name shall be unique and not be one that is easily confused with another journal or that might mislead potential authors and readers about the Journal’s origin or association with other journals.

10. Conflicts of interest: A journal shall have clear policies on handling potentialconflicts of interest of editors, authors, and reviewers and the policies should be clearly stated.

11. Access: The way(s) in which the journal and individual articles are available to readers and whether there are associated subscription or pay per view fees shall be stated.

12. Revenue sources: Business models or revenue sources (eg, author fees, subscriptions, advertising, reprints, institutional support, and organizational support) shall be clearly stated or otherwise evident on the journal’s Web site.

13. Advertising: Journals shall state their advertising policy if relevant, including what types of ads will be considered, who makes decisions regarding accepting ads and whether they are linked to content or reader behavior (online only) or are displayed at random.

14. Publishing schedule: The periodicity at which a journal publishes shall be clearly indicated.

15. Archiving: A journal’s plan for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content (for example, access to main articles via CLOCKSS or PubMedCentral) in the event a journal is no longer published shall be clearly indicated.

16. Direct marketing: Any direct marketing activities, including solicitation of manuscripts that are conducted on behalf of the journal, shall be appropriate, well targeted, and unobtrusive.

From the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, jointly developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics, the Directory of Open Access Journals, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, and the World Association of Medical Editors.