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Research metrics and publishing: Publishing

Deciding where to submit your article

landing page image with the word Publishing              Finding a journal that is a good fit for your paper gives you the best
              chance of success when submitting for publishing.

              Journal selector tools provide one method of compiling a preliminary
              list of potential journals by matching your output to journals that may be suitable. 
                   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 can be accessed via the same username and password account you create to access other tools such as Endnote Online.This can be accessed once you have logged into Web of Science  Click on the tab Master Journal List at the top of the page or 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.

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 Journalytics of reputable journals and Predatory Reports list of questionable journals
  • DOAJ (Useful quality list for Open Access journals)
  • Think. Check. Submit. is a tool to help researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research

Timelines - (check journal website or SciRev)

  • Time taken for peer review
  • Time to publish

Indexing - (check Ulrichsweb.com database to see where the journal claims to be indexed, and then check some of these sources to verify)

  • 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 Journalytics of reputable journals list

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).

 

 

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

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