Selection of Journals for Publication

 

Today, around 30,000  peer reviewed journals are there, publishing approximately 2 million articles every year. It is very important to find out the apt journal for your scientific work. Selection of journal for publication of our research work is a difficult task. An author should look into a number of factors before selecting a journal for publication. Relevance, acceptance rate, circulation, prestige, publication time etc are certain primary things to consider.  Selection of journals are also dependent on a number of other factors as mentioned below.

1.        Specialization spectrum & Target group of the Journal

Before preparing an article, authors should recognise the main theme and predominant message there are going to convey through the publication and can select a journal that is publishing articles in that specialised spectrum. Authors should also think about the target group to whom this message should reach. Depending on the target group, authors could make a list of journals that are primarily read by the target group. It would be also useful if the authors can find whether their message is meant for international, national or regional readers and thus can accordingly select the journals. Sending papers without doing such things may lead to the rejection of article.

On receiving an article, Journal Editor first checks whether the article is of interest to their target group or readers. So, after selecting a journal for publication, the author should first check the types of paper published in that particular journal. Author can also see the last few issues of the journal if available and could find out whether the journal has published papers similar to those which we intend to write.

2.        Peer Reviewed Journal

Journals which publish articles only after being evaluated by other experts in the field are called Peer Reviewed Journals.   Peer review is a multi-layered review process in which the article is evaluated by Editors, reviewers and statiticians. Editor would check whether the article meets the focus of the journal and is suitable.  Then the article undergoes review by Technical Editor who verifies whether the format of article adhere to the prescribed journal style. Then, Section Editors verify the contents. Statisticians would verify appropriateness of statistical methods used in the analysis of research data. Then the article moves to the Subject Experts or Reviewers in the particular field. Thus, the peer review is a time consuming process, however to get published in good quality journals, articles have to undergo this peer review process. Some journals easily publish papers without much review. Such publication are not valued highly by the scientific community.

3.        Acceptance Rate  

All authors wish to avoid rejections. So before submitting articles it would be better to check the acceptance rate of journal from its website. Journals that are not very prestigious have better acceptance rate. Acceptance rate is less for good journals. Usually all journals are interested in quality publications. Hence well written articles with novel idea, strong evidence, solid and meaningful conclusions would be considered for publication.

4.        Indexed Journal   

Multiple databases index journals on the basis of various criteria like quality, regularity of publication, professional standing, review process etc. Hence journals included in such databases are called “indexed journals” and are considered as prestigious. In many professions, promotion to higher posts makes it compulsory to have publications in indexed journals. PubMed is the largest database for biomedical journals all around the world. It is freely available on internet and most popular among scientists, researchers and academicians.  

5.        Impact factor

Impact Factor (IF) is one of the means to assess the value and importance of a journal. It is considered as the most popular assessment means for journal quality among authors, institutions and employers. It is calculated on the basis of number of citations received by journal articles in proportion to the number of citable article published over a period of time. IF in one year is calculated by dividing the number of citations to articles in the previous two years in that particular journal by number of articles published by that journal in the 2 preceding years.

For Eg: Suppose , you want to calculate the IF of Americal Journal of Pathology for the year 2020.

If,             Journal citations in 2019 =   130

Journal citations in 2018 =   170

and

Number of articles published in 2019 = 30

Number of articles published in 2020 = 25

Then, IF = 130 +170/ 30+ 25 = 300/55 = 5.45

IF of Journal in 2020 = 5.45

Usually IF cover last two years. Hence IF change from year to year. In resume, along with publications, researchers also give their impact factor. High impact factor journal publications are highly valued but rejection rate is more.

6.             Open Access Journals   

The journals which provide unfettered access to the entire research content they publish are called Open Access Journals. Articles published in such journals receive wide audience. But some such journals collect publication charge from authors.

7.    Journals Published by Professional Societies

Many Professional bodies and societies publish journals of their respective field and free copies are given to the members. This ensures that the journal is distributed widely among people in that particular field. Authors could publish in such journals if the authors wish to communicate their message to members within a particular specialty.

8.                  Publication in Print or Online version

Most of the journals are published as printed version and also have online version. Publishing in journals having both these versions is highly recommended.  Printed articles have high prestige whereas online journals increase the article access and author visibility.  Printed articles have been a great pride and pleasure for authors. But experts assume that the cost of printing and publishing can be reduced by online journals. Also it adds universal availability through inexpensive internet access and articles could be published rapidly. Hence, printed journals might become a rarity in future.  

Online journals publish articles in the web for everyone to read, so reach even those who have not subscribed the journal. Papers in Online journals have additional features that benefit readers. For example, sometimes links to other related papers are cited in reference.

9.             Cost of Publication

Some journals charge fee for publication. Fee could be collected at any stage before publication. It could be at the time of submission, review or once the article is accepted for publication. Some such journals provide fee concession for publication if study was done in resource poor settings or as part of unfunded projects, or if primary author is a student.

Some unpaid journals collect fee if the word count or the number of pages, figures etc exceed the prescribed limit. Some such journals charge for the coloured figures. Publishing in paid journals increases the cost of publication. Hence authors should first check fee details before selecting the journal for publication.

10.         Efficient Journal Administration

 Before selecting the journal author should see whether the journal is well managed and being published regularly. The journal should be author friendly and also should provide fair and time bound review process. Desirable attributes of author friendly journals are as follows:

·         Electronic submission facility

·         Prompt acknowledgement of receipt of  manuscript

·         Fair peer review process

·         Facility of tracking the article

·         Time bound review process & publication

· Responsive editors & transparent decision making process (Editor should give prompt answers to the queries and concerns of the author

·          Availability of additional services for manuscript. (Some journals give services of qualified statisticians and also service to people to improve language, whose native language is not English). 

·         Regularity of publication

References

1.      Bavdekar, Sandeep. (2015). Choosing the Right Journal for a Scientific Paper. The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India. 63. 56-59.

2.      James Hartely, 2008. Academic writing and publishing-A practical handbook (ISBN 0-203-92798-2), Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, New York