Author Resources for Publishing and Scholarship

Find a place to submit your work, learn about journal metrics, and understand more about predatory publishers.

Researchers exploring new topics may be unfamiliar with journals in their new fields. There are several strategies that can help locate high quality journals in each discipline. Information about journal and publisher metrics (e.g. impact factor) and disreputable publishers and journals may also be helpful. Librarians are happy to help you with your search, just ask us.

Explore journal categories and metrics

In order to rank journals by impact factor, Thomson Reuters groups journals by category -- the Journal Citation Reports. Although the Russell Library doesn’t have a subscription to the Journal Citation Reports, authors can browse the journals listed by category by exploring the Eigenfactor website. Eigenfactor uses the data from Web of Knowledge (also used to calculate impact factors for the Journal Citation Report) to rank journals based on a more complex calculation than the impact factor. Authors can select a category and see which journals are ranked (by eigenfactor) in this category.

• Acceptance rates for journals in some fields can be found in an online guide called Cabell’s. Cabell's is available through GALILEO and currently covers Business and Education.
• Many editors will happily provide acceptance rates when emailed directly.
• Librarians can help you find this information, just ask us.

For more information about using Cabells, please visit the Cabells tab

Hundreds of metrics exist to rank, compare and classify journals, articles and authors.  While some are of interest only to bibliometricians, others are used to evaluate everything from the lifetime contributions of authors to the impact of a paper published last month.

Some of the more common metrics include:

• H-index (authors)
• Eigenfactor (journals)
• Altmetrics (social media impact of articles)
• Article level metrics (tracking views and citations to individual articles)

Disreputable publishers prey on scholars who seek to publish rather than perish. These publishers use a variety of business models to support themselves, but they all suffer from very poor quality content.

If you receive a solicitation to publish in a journal or with a publisher you aren’t familiar with, first read our guide on predatory publishing. Then, seek some additional information:

1. Who is on the editorial board? Do they have good reputations in the field?

• Check that a journal's editorial board lists recognized experts with full affiliations. Contact some of them and ask about their experience with the journal or publisher.
• Red flags: No affiliations listed for board members, too many board members who don’t list this service on their CV

2. Where is the journal indexed?

• High quality publications will be listed in several databases (e.g. ProQuest, EBSCO, etc.).  Librarians can help you find out this information.

3. What other research have they published?

• Read some of the journal's published articles and assess their quality. Contact past authors to ask about their experience.
• Check that a journal's peer-review process is clearly described and try to confirm that a claimed impact factor is correct.
• Red flags: obviously poor quality content, off topic content.

4. Is the journal associated with a scholarly society?

• Look up the organization to make sure the connection is real.
• Check that the publisher provides full, verifiable contact information, including address, on the journal site. Be cautious of those that provide only web contact forms.

5. Is the journal a member of an industry association?

• Check the Directory of Open Access Journals or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association.

6. Does the journal require an "author's fee"?

• Check that the journal prominently displays its policy for author fees.
• Note: Many high quality journals charge author fees, although such fees are less common among reputable monograph publishers.

The information on this page was adapted from a guide at SUNY Geneseo.

It was adapted for use by the Ina Dillard Russell Library at Georgia College & State University by Jennifer Townes in 2016.