LibGuides: Scholarly Publishing and Bibliometrics: Finding an Appropriate Journal

Journal Directories

JANE: Journal/Author Name Estimator
Have you recently written a paper, but you're not sure to which journal you should submit it? Or maybe you want to find relevant articles to cite in your paper? Or are you an editor, and do you need to find reviewers for a particular paper? Jane can help!
Directory of Open Access Journals
The aim of the DOAJ is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals, thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The DOAJ aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content. In short, the DOAJ aims to be THE one stop shop for users of open access journals.
National Library of Medicine Journals Catalog
Browse MEDLINE journals by broad subject terms.
Core Public Health Journals Project
Browse core public health journals by subject areas.
Cabell's Directories
Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities contains a wealth of information designed to help researchers and academics match their manuscripts with the scholarly journals which are most likely to publish those manuscripts.
Ulrich's Web Global Serials Directory
Ulrichsweb is an easy to search source of detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals (also called serials) of all types: academic and scholarly journals, e-journals, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more.

Ulrich's records provide data points such as ISSN, publisher, language, subject, abstracting & indexing coverage, full-text database coverage, tables of contents, and reviews written by librarians.
Beall’s List: Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers
This is a list of questionable, scholarly open-access publishers. We recommend that scholars read the available reviews, assessments and descriptions provided here, and then decide for themselves whether they want to submit articles, serve as editors or on editorial boards.
Retraction Watch Blog
This blog is an informal repository for the retractions the authors find. Retractions found are mainly in the life sciences literature.

Factors to Consider in Determining Appropriateness of Journal

Your choice of journal for manuscript submission may depend on several factors:

Purpose of publishing

What are the interests of my program/department?

What is the desired current and future use of my research?

Visibility of the journal

Is the journal indexed?

What is its circulation?

What is its frequency? How many issues are published per year?

What is the journal's “prestige” or impact factor?

Hint: look at the “About this journal” section of publisher’s website

Focus of the journal

Know target audience of a journal

Who publishes the journal?

What associations or societies may this journal be affiliated with? Will my paper appeal to the membership?

Which journals are my peers most likely to read?

Responsiveness and feedback of journal

Instructions for Authors readily accessible and comprehensive

Journal describes the editorial process

Electronic submission systems

Where have my colleagues published and did they have positive experiences?

Journal styles and distribution

Copyrights are a bundle of rights: Can I have a free reprint or electronic copy of my work? Can I share in classwork?

Ensure maximum distribution and use of scholarly output

Various publishing models: OA, traditional, hybrid, electronic/print, embargoes

Various versions of output: Epub, short, long, abstract, unedited online, author manuscript, etc.

Journal accessibility/Access for your target audience

How does the publisher make journal accessible? Print and/or electronically?

Is content free (Open Access) or subscribed?

Google Scholar – retrieves articles posted in repositories

Various repositories to deposit your work (but publisher may permit only certain output styles)

Author costs

Traditional vs. Open Access publishing models (Open Access may require that author pays a pub fee)

Does my program/department have a policy on handling submission, acceptance, or processing fees for faculty?

Author costs can be a deterrent to selecting a fee-charging journal

Possible benefits of a fee-charging journal? OA, immediacy, accessibility, author retention of copyright

Content is adapted from the following article:

Thompson, P.J. (2007). How to choose the right journal for your manuscript. Chest, 132(3), 1073-6.

Subject Guide

Katelyn Angell

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Associate Professor
Coordinator of Library Instruction
Katelyn.Angell@liu.edu
718-488-1315