From Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL): A new guide with tips for researchers on how to choose a journal for their research.
Publishing choices are often influenced by researchers’ desire to ensure timely and wide dissemination of their research results while at the same time meeting requirements set by their institutions and/or research funders, as well as requirements that researchers need to meet for research evaluation, assessment and promotion.
General advice from the EIFL guide:
- Indexation in databases such as the Web of Science or Scopus isn’t a warranty of quality.
- If you are required by your institution or funder to publish in a journal included in a particular index or list, select a journal from the index/list and analyze it against this checklist.
- Don’t respond to unsolicited invitations to publish.
- Check the information provided on the journal’s/publisher’s website.
- If you’re not 100% sure the journal is legitimate and publishes scholarly content of good quality, don’t submit your manuscript there.
- If you’re looking for an open access journal to publish your research in, use the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) as a starting point.
- You don’t have to pay to publish as there are many journals that don’t charge publication fees or there might be free publishing agreements negotiated for you.
- Search the Internet to see if the journal is mentioned in a negative context.
- Ask your librarian for help and advice!