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Research metrics and publishing: Publishing

Factors to consider when choosing where to publish

Journal quality

  • JCR Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and Quartile Ranking (based on Web of Science data)
  • Scimago journal ranking (based on Scopus data)
  • Cabell's Whitelist of reputable journals and Blacklist of questionable journals
  • DOAJ (Useful Whitelist for Open Access journals)
  • Investigate editorial board members

Timelines - (check journal website or SciRev)

  • Journal acceptance rates
  • Time taken for peer review
  • Time to publish

Indexing - (check Ulrichsweb.com database)

  • Which databases or sites will your research output be available from?
  • Will it be indexed in the major citation databases (Scopus, Web of Science)?
  • If the journal is Open Access, is it indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)?

Reach - (ask colleagues, do some research, look at publisher information)

  • Is the journal read by your target audience?
  • Is the journal a subscription based journal, an Open Access journal, or a hybrid journal?
  • If a subscription journal, can you share pre-publication versions of your work in repositories or archives? - Check SHERPA/ROMEO.

Publisher reputation

  • Are they a reputable scholarly publishing house?
  • Are they well known or recognised in your field? 
  • Check their website for their current publications and guidelines for authors.

Promotion

  • Will they promote your work - in which channels?
  • Do they have a strong web presence?

Permissions

  • Check Copyright policies. Can you put a pre-print copy in an archive or institutional repository?
  • Use SHERPA/ROMEO to find a summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.

Acceptance rate (or rejection rate) is the ratio of the number of articles submitted to the number of articles published. It can measure the selectivity or prestige of a journal, though like many journal metrics, the raw number is not the whole story. There is no single list or database of acceptance rates.

Available metric sources:  
Journal editors, Journal websites
(The data underlying acceptance rates are proprietary. Although some journals make their acceptance rate publicly available, many do not).

Cabell’s 
Acceptance rates included for journals on the Whitelist

MLA international bibliography
For those journals in literature, linguistics, and folklore indexed by the MLA Bibliography, acceptance data is available in the MLA "Directory of Periodicals," found in the search menu in the online version of the MLA International Bibliography.
Although the MLA Directory does not publish acceptance rates, it shows the annual number of articles submitted and published, and these numbers can be used to calculate the acceptance rate.

For example, regarding the journal Hemingway Review, the MLA Directory states “Articles: Suggested Length: 6,250 words maximum; Number Submitted Per Year: 50-60; Published Per Year: 10-14.” Dividing the number of articles published by the number submitted yields an acceptance rate ranging from 17% (10/60) to 28% (14/50).

 

 

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Deciding where to submit your article

Finding a journal that is a good fit for your paper gives you the best chance of success when submitting for publishing.
One method of compiling a preliminary list of potential journals is to utilise free online journal selectors which attempt to match your output to suitable journals. 

Elsevier Journal Finder

  • Simply insert your title and abstract and select the appropriate field-of-research to see Elsevier titles best suited for publishing your scientific article. You may also limit to Open Access journals if you wish.

JANE: Journal / Author Name Estimator 

  • To search in JANE, enter keywords, title and/or abstract of your paper and click “Find journals,” JANE will then compare your input to documents from the past 10 years in MEDLINE to find the best matches. The journals are ranked by confidence score in which similarity between your input and articles in a journal is calculated.

Manuscript Matcher

  • Manuscript Matcher requires you to login to EndNote Online. Enter title and abstract to see a list of journals and their matching score. Manuscript Matcher also tells you the Journal Impact Factor and Quartile, and whether a journal is Open Access.

There are a number of other journal selectors, including the Springer Journal Suggester and Edanz Journal Selector.

Avoiding poor quality journals

Predatory Publishing

  • In academia, predatory publishing refers to the unethical practices of a growing number of open access publishers, who make false claims about the merit of their publications in a bid to lure researchers to submit their work.

Cabells Scholarly Analytics database contains a blacklist of questionable journals.

Think Check Submit

Monash University Publishing


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Monash University Publishing publishes scholarship of the highest standard across the humanities and social sciences and specialises in Asian Studies, Politics, Education, Communications, and the study of Australian history, culture and literature. All titles pass through a rigorous process of independent peer review. See Information for authors.

Publishing your research - online tutorial

 
Monash FMNHS and the Library have developed an online tutorial to assist you with publishing your research.
Contents include:

  1. Why publish
  2. Authorship: who and in what order
  3. How do I choose a journal for my publication
  4. Preparing the content of a journal article
  5. Creating the abstract
  6. EndNote for formatting publications
  7. Writing a letter to the editor
  8. The review process
  9. ORCID ID
  10. How long does it take for a paper to be published?
  11. Copyright
  12. Plagiarism

Monash research repositories

Monash University Research Portal is the University’s institutional repository for publications. It allows the global research community to connect with our researchers and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Monash University researchers can add research publications via myResearch or by contacting the Research Outputs Collection Service for detailed advice.

Discover Monash University research outputs: https://research.monash.edu/en

Enquiries: myresearch@monash.edu

more information here:

https://www.monash.edu/library/about/initiatives/repository

Image of books publishing by Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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