The impact factor
With the change in the publishing world, there is a wide variety of options for authors to publish their articles, but at the same time, the sheer number of journals available for getting the articles published has created confusion in the minds of the authors as to select the right journal for publishing an article. Selecting the right journal for publishing can be tricky, but as you go on reading this article, we have suggested ways that can help an author find the right journal to publish their articles, dissertations, and manuscripts. There are more than 80000 academic and peer-reviewed journals published actively around the globe. Apart from that, the predatory practices used by the journals often lure authors into publishing their articles and manuscripts in a journal that may not be suitable for publication.
Quality concerns for authors
There are obviously quality concerns with so many journals getting actively published. Some of the journals consciously follow a predatory practice and publish articles for a price, at times affecting the overall quality of the journals.
The impact factor of a journal can be a good quality indicator.
The journal impact factor is a very good indicator of its popularity and importance. But the obvious question is how to know the impact factor of a journal. A journal with a high impact factor are generally those journals that have been cited more frequently in recent years. Journals that have a high impact factor indicate the importance of the journal in a specific field. The articles of such journals are considered important and add to new knowledge in a specific field and often carry new research in the field.
Should the authors only consider the impact factor of a journal when they choose to publish their work:
The answer is yes and no. The impact factor is indeed an important indicator of the popularity and importance of a journal in a specific field; however, it is not the only factor that the authors should consider when they select a journal to publish their work. There are other factors like the general quality of the articles, the publication fee that the journal charges, and other important aspects.
Citations are the basic reason for the impact factor of a journal. However, if not considered carefully, it can often be misleading. The simple reason is that the articles published are covered more simply because they attract more audiences or appeal to a wider geographic area. Also, the fact that only a few articles in those journals may be more popular, but others may lack the required quality. So, looking at just the impact factor can be misleading on certain occasions as it has limitations, as mentioned above.
So, what are the ways to evaluate journals in order to understand their worth for publishing an article? So naturally, apart from the impact factor, which is an important metric for evaluating journals, there are other benchmarks that the authors can analyze before they consider specific journals to publish their work:
A few other things that an author can analyze are as below:
- The website of the journal: Anayse the website of the journal; it often contains all the important information; articles are other resources that can help you evaluate the quality of a journal.
- The reputation of the journal: Some of the journals have high reputations, like Nature, British Medical Journal, Harvard Business Review, and other such publications. They are generally considered to be reputed in their respective fields and are widely referred to in general.
- Analyze the articles published over a period of time: There are other ways to figure out the quality and reputation of a journal and its publication quality and popularity. If one analyzes the articles published in a journal over a period of time, then one can have a good understanding of the quality of the articles published in the journal. Analyzing a lot of different editions of the journal article is a good benchmark for a high-quality journal.
- The fees charged to publish articles: You can also compare the fees charged by journals for the publication of articles. It may be an important personal criterion for you before you select a particular journal to publish your work.
- Peer Review Process: This is also an important benchmark for evaluating a journal. Journals that follow a rigid peer review process often have better-quality articles. A good peer review process ensures that the quality of the journal is good.
- Editorial quality: Editorial quality is another aspect that an author can check in order to decide about the quality of a journal. The grammar, overall language, structure, flow of the articles in a journal is also a good indicator of the quality of a journal. High-quality journals pay a lot of attention to the editing of the English language in the articles. Many of the journals hire professional English editing services.
- Editorial Board: One of the ways to ascertain the quality of a journal is to understand the policies of its editorial board. If the editorial board includes experts on the subject, then the quality of the journal is going to be high.
- Research topics: The article topics covered by a journal are also an important factor in deciding the quality of a journal. High-quality journals always publish articles on relevant and new topics with new research. The article topics, thus, are an important indication which shows the quality of a journal.
As discussed above, there are a number of ways that the new authors can use to find quality journals. Although there are many rankings published on an annual basis, which can help the authors find quality journals to publish their articles. But apart from the lists published, the authors can use the above yardsticks and find quality journals to publish their articles. The individual preferences of the author as per the outcomes they are expecting can also be one of the criteria for picking the right journal.