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Scholarly Communication Support: Planning, Conducting, Disseminating, Promoting, & Assessing Research

This guide will acquaint researchers with knowledge and tools to assist in planning, conducting, disseminating, promoting, and assessing research.

Planning Your Publication From the Start

While it's true that you don't have complete control over where you publish -- an editor may or may not accept your manuscript for various reasons -- you should nevertheless choose a publishing venue to target from the beginning.

  1. Use your project's subject matter, scope, and intended audience to identify several potential journals (or book publishers) that would be a good fit.
  2. Choose one journal/publisher to target first according to any other factors that are important in your context (e.g., open access, lower/higher acceptance rate, promptness of publishing, reputation/prestige, and so forth).

Knowing your intended target will ensure that you are able to write and format your manuscript according to their requirements from the beginning: from the tone you use and the audience you address, to the citation style of your references or footnotes.

Publishing Journal Articles

You probably already know some key journals in your field. However, you may be unaware of other good journals, especially emerging titles. And when you expand into a new area of research, familiar journals may not your best options.

As you discover journals in your field, compare their characteristics with your manuscript and goals. Ask questions such as:

  • Is this journal reputable and high-quality? Read more below about avoiding predatory and hijacked journals.
  • Scope and Mission - What do they want to accomplish? What topics do they include and exclude?
  • Audience - Academic or professional/trade? Experts, students, or laypersons?
  • Style - E.g., Formal or conversational? Highly structured or more organic?
  • Content focus/angle - E.g., Theoretical/conceptual work or discussions of practical application?
  • Acceptance rate, readership, citation-based metrics, and other quantitative factors?
  • How do these traits of style and content compare with your own? Are you a good match for this journal, and is it a good match for you?

When details are lacking, don't be afraid to contact a journal's editor.

Deceptive or Predatory publishers as those who deliberately trick researchers by deceiving them about or failing to provide a meaningful service simply in order to extract money. Their sole aim is profit, not evaluating and disseminating high-quality research to advance scholarship.

Note that charging an article processing charge (APC) for open-access publishing does NOT by itself make a journal predatory. Many journals may charge a fee for open-access publication, and this practice is not automatically predatory if fees are transparent and rigorous review, editing, and other related services are provided.

Also note that some journals may be low-quality without being deliberately deceptive or predatory. The best journals are thorough and transparent in their policies, consistent in their practices, rigorous and ethical in their editorial and peer review, and committed to making their published content discoverable and accessible. Low-quality journals may not meet the highest expectations on all these factors, but still not be appropriately criticized as "predatory"; they may simply have room for improvement. However, it still warrants careful consideration as to whether the quality is reasonable enough for you to want to associate your work with the journal.

Hijacked journals are fake websites using the title and ISSNs of reputable journals. In other words, the real Journal of Biomedicine may be a highly credible journal, and yet a researcher could end up submitting on a website which only claims to be the Journal of Biomedicine. Authors may fall prey to a hijacked journal more easily than other predatory journals because of the appearance of legitimacy and credentials. By falsely assuming the reputable journal's identity, the fake website is able to solicit manuscripts and pocket the money from article processing charges (APCs) without providing any vetting of scholarship, rigorous peer review, or additional editorial value.

 

Red circle with a slash symbolizing no, overlaid on a partial screenshot of a web page titled Predatory Reports

AVOID the website called "PredatoryReports[dot]org"

(1) This site illegally infringes on the name of a product belonging to Cabell's;

(2) This site has encouraged publishers to pay exorbitant bribes to have their journals removed from their "predatory" list

Source


Click on infographic to enlarge or download.

This infographic was originally created by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. You can also download it as a PDF.

Article-First Approach

This approach is generally easier if you are an early career researcher not yet be accustomed to thinking of their work in terms of top-level disciplinary categories and terms. This can also be a beneficial approach if you are a more experienced researcher transitioning into a new area of research.

(1) Start by using the sources in this box to search for articles on similar topics and find out where they are published.

(2) Next, move to the sources in the "Journal-First Approach" box to look up specific journal titles and compare their characteristics to your goals.

Example: Searched for third language acquisition

Publication filter in Engine Orange showing the list of journals represented in the search results

Journal-First Approach

This approach may be more efficient for more experienced researchers who are more familiar with thinking of their work in top-level disciplinary categories and terms and who may already be more familiar with an array of disciplinary journals.

(1) Start by using the sources in this box to search for journals in a field and compare their characteristics.

(2) Next, use the sources in the "Article-First Approach" box to read articles from recent issues and verify whether a journal is a good fit for your work.

The popular Journal Impact Factor is just one example of a journal-level metric resulting from a ratio that compares the number of items published in a journal to the number of citations those items receive (though each specific metric is calculated differently, some with various weightings factored in).

Note that these citation-based metrics can be useful for specific purposes, but they should not be used as a proxy measure for an individual article or individual researcher, nor do they represent the actual "quality" of a journal.

Each citation-based journal metric is based on a specific set of publication and citation data.

  • Impact Factor and Eigenfactor = based on data from the Web of Science database
  • CiteScore and SJR = based on data from the Scopus database

This means not every journal has an Impact Factor. Some journals may be indexed in Web of Science and Scopus and thus have both metrics; journals in only one database will have only one, for example, a CiteScore but not an Impact Factor.

Note: In some fields, it is counter-productive to focus on Impact Factor and similar metrics:

  • Disciplines not well indexed in Web of Science or Scopus
    • Including disciplines based heavily in non-English language journals
  • Disciplines or subject areas where research is often intended to be consumed by non-researchers, such as practitioners

What do citation-based journal metrics like Impact Factor measure?

  • Influence of a journal on other scholarly journals in terms of citation.
  • Comparison of journals within a field.

What do they NOT measure?

  • Citations outside of their specific database.
  • Objective quality of a journal.
  • Comparison of journals in different fields. 
  • Any aspect of an individual article or researcher.
  • Influence of a journal on policy, practice, or the public.

Criticisms and Limitations to be Aware of: 

Tools

 

You may also want to look for journal rankings created by university departments or professional organizations in your field (tip: try Googling something like journal rankings in [field]). These may be tricky to find or may not exist at all, but they can be useful if your field is not well covered in popular tools, or if you believe these tools do not fairly and accurately represent your field.

BE WARY of fake metrics with names that intentionally resemble real metrics; these include but are not limited to Cite Factor, General Impact Factor, Global Impact Factor, International Scientific Indexing and Scientific Journal Impact Factor. See more misleading metrics.

Video: Journal Impact Factor and Journal Citation Indicator (5:00)

 

 

This video (4:52) from the University of Houston Libraries covers the basics of searching and navigating Cabell's.

This video (3:49) from the University of Massachusetts Libraries provides a good overview of searching for journals and impact data / metrics in Cabell's. 

This video (26:48) from Clarivate Analytics demonstrates the integrated use of Web of Science and JCR to inform manuscript submissions descisions.

These are options which use natural language matching and artificial intelligence to suggest journals. Try them out, but recognize that they lack human mediation.

 
Publisher-Neutral

 

Publisher-Specific

Depending on exactly what publisher you work with, and what sort of author contract you sign, you may retain OR give up the rights to do certain things with your article, such as:

  • Reprint it in another journal;
  • Republish it as a book chapter;
  • Archive the pre-print, post-print, and/or published version(s) of the article in an online repository;
  • Distribute printed copies of the article;
  • Or other types of content reuse or redistribution.

Before you consider taking action with a published article, be sure you find out what rights you have retained or signed over to the publisher. Reading your copyright agreement or publication contract is a good place to start.

The resources on this page will help you identify what actions you can or cannot take with your article after publication.

If you have not published YET, you may want to review the Negotiation resources on this page.

NOTE: Publishers often make distinctions between three primary versions of a manuscript when detailing archive/deposit rights retained by authors:

  • Pre-print – Draft submitted to journal before peer review. AKA Submitted version.
  • Post-print – Last revised draft submitted to journal after peer review and revisions. AKA Accepted version.
  • Publisher's version/PDF – Final, formatted PDF on the publisher's website. AKA Published version.

Each journal is different, and authors need to be aware of what they can do. The copyright transfer agreement is the best place to find this information. Otherwise, consult a resource like the Sherpa Romeo database. The library can assist you in identifying journal policy.

Negotiating Rights Before Publication

Just because a publisher's standard contract may include or exclude certain rights, you have the right to negotiate the contract to maintain additional rights or to increase open access to your work.

The following examples of addendums or amendments to publication agreements may be helpful as models or templates.


Beware of Fine Print

Open-access publishing agreements from some publishers, such as Elsevier and Wiley, may contain "fine print" or loopholes you may easily overlook. Although the article is published with a Creative Common license that provides free online access and broad reuse rights for readers, it may also grant the publisher an exclusive right to earn a profit from the work -- blocking you from commercial uses of your own work. Learn more in the article below from the Authors Alliance.

Regaining Rights After Publication

It may sometimes be possible to regain certain rights to past works that were already transferred to a publisher.

Publishing Books

There is no definitive list of quality publishers. Rather than relying on a list, you should use multiple sources to comprehensively investigate any publishers that you are considering for your manuscript. If you find you are unable to get a contract with a quality publisher, you may need to re-consider your topic. Use the feedback from publishers to help you identify publishable topics in your area.

When considering a publisher:

  1. Have you or your colleagues heard of the publisher? If colleagues have published with them, how do they describe their experience?
  2. Have you read other of their works in your discipline and found them of quality? Are you comfortable with the idea of your name and work being associated with the publisher's name?
  3. Have any of the publisher's works been nominated for or won awards?
  4. Does the publisher actively promote their services, such as exhibiting at conferences?
  5. Does the publisher send unsolicited invitations for manuscripts? This may be a sign of a low-quality or predatory publisher.
  6. Does the publisher explain how the quality control of your manuscript would be managed, e.g., type of peer review or editorial support?

Avoid vanity publishers (or vanity presses), which require authors to fund the publication of their own works and which may provide no editing or quality control in the process. Publishing with a vanity press may harm your academic reputation and may not meet your requirements for tenure and promotion.

Screenshot of video series on understanding the rights provisions of book contracts

 

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