Scientific Writing - The Library and Getting Published: Getting Published in Journals

MEDLINE currently indexes over 5600 journals in medicine and the life sciences. The Web of Science master journal list indexes over 24,000 journals covering 254 subject disciplines. With so many potential outlets for your work, it can be a daunting task finding a journal that is the right fit. 

There are a few steps you can take at the beginning to help you narrow your focus and get you started on a short list of potential journals.

• You should already be familiar with the most influential journals in your field. Take a look at their scope statements and types of research published.
• Ask your colleagues and supervisors. They may have a greater awareness of the spectrum of relevant publications.
• Look at the articles you cite in your reference list. What journals are they in?
• Keep an eye out for "call for papers." Many journals will put out requests for papers on special topic issues they are putting together. Some publishers provide searchable interfaces.
• Use journal/manuscript matching tools. A lot of these tools have come to the fore recently. You can copy/paste your manuscript title, abstract and (sometimes) keywords into the the search interface and it will return journals which have published similar articles. 

Completing these steps should give you enough information to draft a short list of potential journals for you to evaluate and narrow down. Here are a few things to think about when evaluating your short list:

• Would you prefer your work to be published in a generalist journal or a specialist publication?
• Is your work within the scope of the journal? Check the journal site. Some journals won't accept case reports or reviews.
• Is your work regional or does it have international appeal?
• What is the peer review process?
• What is the submission process?
• What is the submission timeline?
• What charges are involved?
• Do you want to publish in an Open Access journal?
• How important are journal metrics to you? Impact factor?

Need a brief primer on using journal metrics and what they are? Check out this article in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology:

"Publishing your research work: Updated concepts and nuances of few metrics used to assess journal quality"

There is no one sure fire way to identify a predatory journal. However there are multiple avenues to investigate a journal to see if they are legitimate. 

The site Think, Check, Submit can walk you through the process of evaluating a journal through a series of checklists. 

Things to look out for:

• Unsolicited email - Did you receive an email asking you to submit an article out of the blue? Look out for poorly worded, unprofessional emails asking for you to consider submitting. Typos or misspellings can also be common. 
• Journal name similar to well known journal - Predatory journals will often have names that are quite close to well-known respected journals.
• Publisher/journal website - Predatory journal sites can appear outdated and unprofessional. Typos and misspellings throughout? Is contact information and a physical address provided? If a physical address is listed, try checking on Google Maps to see if it's an actual office building via street view. Can you actually see any current and past articles published? Are they within the stated journal scope?
• Editorial board - Does the journal list the editorial board? Are they known researchers in your field? Some predatory journals will put people on their board unawares to them. Feel free to contact editors or board members to ask about their work with the journal.
• Publishing fees (APC) - Are they CLEARLY listed and communicated by the journal? Are the comparable to other journals? Do they indicate when you will be billed?
• Peer review process - Is the peer review process clearly outlined? Is their timeline for peer review absurdly fast?
• Impact factor - Many predatory journals will boast of having a high impact factor. Verify this by checking their impact factor through Journal Citation Reports.
• Journal indexed by databases - Predatory journals often say they are indexed in databases like PubMed and Embase. Do articles from the journal actually appear in searches there? You can check the journal title in the NLM Catalog to see if it is indexed in PubMed.
• No ISSN - A unique identifier all legitimate academic journals have. This number is unique to each journal.

Greetings from your Predatory Journal!  What they are, why they are a problem, how to spot and avoid them - This recent (3/23) article in the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery gives some updated info on the predatory journal landscape and a good example of a predatory soliciting email. (Proxied link only available to Downstate users)

Once you have decided which journal to submit your manuscript to, go to that journal's site and find the "Guide for Authors" page to see how you need to prepare your manuscript for submission.

Once you submit your manuscript the publisher will determine what happens next. There are several different ways this could go:

• Accepted - Rare to happen on first submission, but it does happen.
• Desk Reject - Rejected without review. Very common. Happens to about 40%-90% of manuscripts depending on the journal. Often due to quality threshold or scope.
• Major Revision - Significant deficiencies must be corrected before acceptance. Usually involves significant text modifications and possibly additional experiments. After revision, manuscript will usually be sent for peer review again.
• Minor Revision - Some elements in manuscript must be clarified, restructured, shortened or expanded. Minor revision does NOT guarantee acceptance, but it often does.

Remember you can only submit any given manuscript to one journal at a time. Simultaneous submissions are prohibited.

These journal/manuscript matchers have been developed by various entities and results will vary depending on which one you are using. They can be helpful in developing your short list of journals to investigate for submission. They can be also be a good tool to familiarize yourself with journals that publish in your area of research. 

Journal matching tools

• JOT - A new open-source tool developed by the Yale School of Public Health. 
• B!son - Open Access Journal matcher. (This tool is still under active development so verify your results at the journal site.)
• Web of Science Journal Matcher - Compares against 24k journals indexed in WOS. Users must create a free account before using this tool.
• JANE Journal/Author Name Estimator - Provides some evaluation info like "indexed in MEDLINE" and "High Quality Open Access"
• SPI-Hub - Tool created at Vanderbilt Medical Center. Works best as keyword/topic search matching vs. abstract matching.
• Journal Guide - Resource created by Research Square. Claims to index 46,000 journals so results may require further investigation for quality. (See predatory journals)
• IEEE Publication Matcher - This tool is focused on matching with technology journals but could potentially provide relevant journals where topics overlap.

Publisher Journal Matching Tools

Note that these tools were created by their respective publishers and will only return results for journals published by them.

• Elsevier Journal Finder 
• Springer/Nature Journal Matcher 
• Wiley Journal Finder 
• Taylor & Francis 

Dimensions - This "research and innovation" database links multiple sources together with more than 98 million publications and 150 million patents. Their data can provide insight into which journals have published research similar to yours. 

Terms used in scholarly publishing

• Preprint server - online repository where researchers can share manuscripts for public comment before they are submitted to a journal for peer review. (e.g. medRxiv, bioRxiv)
• Peer review - Critical evaluation of a submitted manuscript for scientific rigor, significance and originality.
• DOI (Digital Object Identifier) - Unique alphanumeric code assigned to a digital object (e.g. journal article) 
• Open Access -  the practice of making scholarly or research outputs, such as journal articles, conference papers, and datasets, freely available online to anyone without cost or access barriers.
• Article Processing Charge (APC) - fee charged by some open access journals or publishers to cover the costs associated with the publication process. APCs are typically paid by the author, their institution, or funding agencies.
• Creative Commons Licensing - free, standardized copyright licenses that allow creators to share and distribute their work while retaining some control over how it is used and credited.

Manuscript types - Your manuscript "version" depends on what stage of the publishing process it is at. It's a good idea to keep all versions of your manuscript.

• Submitted version (Preprint) - Initial version of a manuscript that is submitted to a publisher. Has not been peer-reviewed or edited by the publisher.
• Accepted version (Postprint) - manuscript that has been peer-reviewed, revised, and accepted for publication, but has not undergone the final formatting and copyediting process carried out by the publisher.
• Version of record (Published version) - the final and official version of a published article that has been typeset, copy-edited, and formatted by the publisher, and is assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or other unique identifier.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you may have:

Gregg Headrick

gregg.headrick@downstate.edu