Research Guides: Guide to Scholarly Writing, Publishing, and Research Impact: Deciding Where to Publish

Discovering Journals in a Field

Man looking through binoculars

You are probably already aware of some key journals in your field, perhaps because you read them regularly, have referenced them in your own research, or have published in them in the past.

However, you may be unaware of other good journals in your field. And if you begin to research and write in a somewhat new area, the journals you already know may not be the best suited to your new work.

The tools below can help you discover journals that publish in a certain field or on a certain topic.

As you discover journals through a variety of tools, make note of different characteristics, such as:

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?
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?
What is the journal's acceptance rate?
Is this journal reputable and high-quality? See the resources below for more help on identifying low-quality and predatory journals.

When details are lacking, don't be afraid to contact a journal's editor and request details such as acceptance rate or circulation/readership.

Cabell's Scholarly Analytics

Cabell's Scholarly Analytics
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Provides publication details, including acceptance rates and key metrics, for journals in many disciplines. "Whitelist" component identifies high-quality journals; "blacklist" component identifies likely predatory journals.

Use Cabell's to find:

Journals that publish in a field; covers a wide range of areas in Business, Computer Science, Education, Nursing & Health Administration, Psychology & Psychiatry, and Math & Sciences.
Journal Impact Factor (Thomson Reuters), plus contextual influence within each of its primary topics (more info on Cabell's unique rankings).
Acceptance rate, review process, length of time to review and publish, and difficulty of acceptance.
Publisher's contact details and specific requirements for manuscript length, submission, and more.
Current Calls for Papers that the journal has provided.
Journal's aims and scope to guage whether its goals fit with your own.

Explanation of publishing models: Cabell's includes indications of publishing models, but the terminology may not immediately be familiar. In general,

Traditional indicates a non-free (pay for access) publishing model.
Green indicates a non-free publishing model, but which also allow authors to place their articles in open-access repositories.
Hybrid indicates a non-free publishing model which allow authors to pay a fee to make a specific article freely available.
Gold indicates an entirely free, open-access publishing model.

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

Please note: the video's statement about the blacklist not being available applies to UH, but the blacklist component of Cabell's **IS** available at SHSU.

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 from Cabells International demonstrates the website's features, including the whitelist and blacklist components.

Cabells Whitelist & Blacklist Demonstration (48 mins)
Lucas Toutloff, Jul 17 2017. Provided by Cabell's International on Brighttalk.

More Resources

Getting Published in the Humanities: What to Know, Where to Aim, How to Succeed
Call Number: Read Online

In academia, the mantra "publish or perish" is more than a cliché. In most humanities fields, securing tenure proves impossible without at least one book under your belt. Yet despite the obvious importance of academic publishing, the process remains an enigma to most young scholars. In this helpful guide, a seasoned author offers essential advice for novice academic writers seeking publication. He explains why not all publications are equal, why e-books are not as widely respected as printed books in the academic world, how to schedule publications prior to tenure, how to spot a publishable idea, how to approach the right publisher, and a host of other useful tips that greatly increase one's chances of publication. By outlining a step-by-step approach to publishing, this indispensable manual removes much of the mystery surrounding an essential component of an academic career.

MLA Directory of Periodicals

Modern Language Association (MLA) Directory of Periodicals

Who publishes a journal and how to contact them.
How frequently a journal is published and whether it is peer-reviewed.
For some journals: circulation numbers and acceptance rates.

Basic keyword search: find journals with matching titles, subjects, scope, publisher, or other details.

Advanced Search for various characteristics: Peer Review, Blind Submission Policy, and more.

Search results indicate "full text" for journals SHSU subscribes to, or "interlibrary loan" for those with no SHSU subscription.

Some journals have more details provided than others.

Look under "Submission Details" to determine acceptance rate; divide number of published articles by number of submitted articles to get % acceptance. For example, the journal below publishes 24 out of 150 articles, so it has a 16% acceptance rate.

Web of Science

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

UlrichsWeb

UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory

Journals, magazines, and trade publications in most subject areas.
Who publishes a journal and how to contact them.
How frequently a journal is published and whether it is peer-reviewed.
Whether a journal is print or online, free or paid, and for what sort of an audience it is written.
What article databases include full-text articles from a journal, so that you can use the SHSU Library's subscription databases to review articles from past issues and see whether the journal's content and style match your own.

Basic Search: search for specific journal title or keyword.

Advanced Search: Search by additional details, such as "Active" (meaning a journal is currently being published), Journal or Magazine, Academic/Scholarly or Trade audience, and Language.

Click "More Limiters" to display options for an even more complex search, including a "Refereed/Peer-Reviewed" option, subject areas, countries of publication, etc.

Directory of Open Access Journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
"DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals."

For more information about Open Access publishing, see the "Open-Access Publishing" page of this guide.

JournalGuide.com

JournalGuide.com

Search for journals published in a category or find details on a specific journal.

Details often include: Aim & Scope, Speed, Cost, and Open Access Policy. May include journal's Impact Factor (if applicable) or SNIP score.

"Verified" label seeks to identify legitimate scholarly publications by indicating that a journal is "confirmed to be included in at least one high-value index or vetted by more than one subject specialized index."