Scholarly Publishing

When you are looking to publish your research there are a variety of factors to consider. It is helpful to first think about the big picture questions regarding your work:

• Who is your audience? Are you speaking to a particular scholarly conversation in your field? Are you speaking to a large segment of your field? Is your work attempting to engage in a conversation across multiple fields? Are you looking to speak to the general public?
• Where are your peers publishing? What journals are you reading and paying attention to? If you are a student where is your advisor publishing or suggesting to publish?
• What level of reach are you trying to achieve? Is open access something you desire from your work and how much do you value it being open?

Considering these larger questions will help you focus on the publications that are the best fit for your work.

over the centuries scholarly publishing has seen many forms, most of which have centered around the physical printing of scholarly works. In recent years this has changed as scholarly publishing, notably journal publishing, has migrated to an online digital format. This has allowed for newer approaches to publishing to provide alternate models of the publishing and sharing of scholarship. These various publishing models, particularly the two listed below, are ways to share valid scholarship but have differing pros and cons to their models.

Traditional Publishing Model

The traditional form of academic publishing is where an author submits an article to a journal and if accepted it is published in the journal which then must be bought by a reader or library to have access to the article. Generally this mode of publishing has no fees to the author to be published but makes that cost up by charging a subscription or access fee to the reader or reader's institution.

Open Access Publishing Model

This is a newer form of academic publishing where an author submits an article to a journal and if accepted it is published in the journal with the ability for readers to access the article for free. Often, but not always, this model will charge the author a publication fee but the readers then will be able to access to the article with no charges or fees to them.

For multiple decades the there have been assorted quantitative metrics to measure the impact of scholarly works, publication, and authors on their disciplines. These metrics can be helpful in gauging the impact of the publications you are considering, as well as the potential importance of certain journals, articles, or authors within your field. You should note though that scholarly metrics are a debated topic and while potentially helpful can lead to unhealthy scholarly behaviors in a field and can only represent the usage of a work, not its quality, and are able to be manipulated. They can be helpful in evaluating and considering a publication but should not be the sole determining factor.

Journal Publication Metrics

Citation Analysis - The study of the impact of a publication or author based on the number of times they were cited by other scholarly works. One of the databases most known for this data is Web of Science, Google Scholar is also often referenced for this data though it does not deduplicate its citations and may include non-scholarly sources. Other databases have also started including this data.

Journal Impact Factor - A quantitative number representing the frequency of the average journal article being cited within a specific year. It is calculated over a two year period dividing the number of articles that were cited by the number of articles within the journal that were citable. There are multiple sites and groups that calculate impact factors.

Eigenfactor - An Eigenfactor Score is a variant of impact factor that tries to quantitatively examine the influence of a journal within its field and the likeliness of its usage by examining the number of times it was cited in a specific year with articles from that journal spanning a five year period.

H-Index - An author level metric that has also been applied to journals measuring their impact based on their most cited papers and the number of citations received from other publications.

Altmetrics - An alternative to citation based metrics Altmetrics use other factors to determine the impacts and influence of a publication such as social and mainstream media mentions, online discussions on the publication, citations in public policy documents, inclusion in course syllabi, views and downloads from repositories, and other such factors.

Book Publication Metrics

Quantitative metrics are not traditional in evaluating book publishing but there are a few ways to examine them that may prove helpful.

Book Citation Count - This data can be more difficult to obtain, though searching for a book title in Google Scholar will include a number of times cited. Note that Google Scholar book citation counts have the same concerns are article citation counts.

Library Holdings - By searching WorldCat to see how many libraries hold a copy of a book and how many you can infer its potential level of interest and impact in scholarship

Author Metrics

Citation Count - A simple count of the number of citations an article or an author has received.

H-Index - An author level metric that measures their impact based on their most cited papers and the number of citations received from other publications.

Referenced Eastern Michigan University's Scholarly Impact Metrics Guide and UIC's Measuring Your Impact: Impact Factor, Citation Analysis, and other Metrics: Measuring Your Impact Guide.

When reviewing an publisher or journal for quality and legitimacy -- the following should be considered:

1. Peer review process: All of a journal’s content, apart from any editorial material that is clearly marked as such, shall be subjected to peer review. Peer review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from reviewers expert in the field who are not part of the journal’s editorial staff. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s peer review procedures, shall be clearly described on the journal’s Web site.
2. Governing Body: Journals shall have editorial boards or other governing bodies whose members are recognized experts in the subject areas included within the journal’s scope. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors shall be provided on the journal’s Web site.
3. Editorial team/contact information: Journals shall provide the full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors on the journal’s Web site as well as contact information for the editorial office.
4. Author fees: Any fees or charges that are required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in the journal shall be clearly stated in a place that is easy for potential authors to find prior to submitting their manuscripts for review or explained to authors before they begin preparing their manuscript for submission.
5. Copyright: Copyright and licensing information shall be clearly described on the journal’s Web site, and licensing terms shall be indicated on all published articles, both HTML and PDFs.
6. Identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: Publishers and editors shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. In no case shall a journal or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the event that a journal’s publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in their journal – the publisher or editor shall follow COPE’s guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing with allegations.
7. Ownership and management: Information about the ownership and/or management of a journal shall be clearly indicated on the journal’s Web site. Publishers shall not use organizational names that would mislead potential authors and editors about the nature of the journal’s owner.
8. Web site: A journal’s Web site, including the text that it contains, shall demonstrate that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards.
9. Name of journal: The Journal name shall be unique and not be one that is easily confused with another journal or that might mislead potential authors and readers about the Journal’s origin or association with other journals.
10. Conflicts of interest: A journal shall have clear policies on handling potential conflicts of interest of editors, authors, and reviewers and the policies should be clearly stated.
11. Access: The way(s) in which the journal and individual articles are available to readers and whether there are associated subscription or pay per view fees shall be stated.
12. Revenue sources: Business models or revenue sources (eg, author fees, subscriptions, advertising, reprints, institutional support, and organizational support) shall be clearly stated or otherwise evident on the journal’s Web site.
13. Advertising: Journals shall state their advertising policy if relevant, including what types of ads will be considered, who makes decisions regarding accepting ads and whether they are linked to content or reader behavior (online only) or are displayed at random.
14. Publishing schedule: The periodicity at which a journal publishes shall be clearly indicated.
15. Archiving: A journal’s plan for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content (for example, access to main articles via CLOCKSS or PubMedCentral) in the event a journal is no longer published shall be clearly indicated.
16. Direct marketing: Any direct marketing activities, including solicitation of manuscripts that are conducted on behalf of the journal, shall be appropriate, well targeted, and unobtrusive.

From Principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing.

As an author of scholarly materials you will want to consider signing up for an ORCID, particularly if you intend to publish multiple works. An ORCID is a unique persistent identifier that is associated with you as an author. It can help differentiate you from other authors with similar names and make sure that all of your works are properly associated with you. Most publishers will make use of ORCIDs if you have one.

ORCID - The website for the non-profit organization that creates and maintain ORCID identifiers

Journal Finding Resources

JANE - Journal/Author Name Estimator - A search system by BioSemantics Group at Erasmus University Medical Centre that can search your title and abstract or do a keyword search on your topic to find appropriate journals or article reviewers using date from the MEDLINE database

Manuscript Matcher - A tool that uses the title, abstract and references from your manuscript via Endnote to compare it to the Web of Science data and "match" it with relevant publications

Cofactor Journal Selector - A system to find STEM publications by subject, peer review, open access, speed of review/acceptance and various other factors

Open Access Journal Finder by Enago - A system to find relevant journals via an index from the Directory of Open Access Journals

Springer Journal Suggester - A system to search your title and text to find matching Springer/BioMed Central Journals

Elsevier Journal Finder - A system to search your title and abstract to find a matching Elsevier journal

Journal Data Resources

JournalGuide - A free tool to examine journal and publisher data to determine the best place to publish

SCImago Journal & Country Rank - Publicly accessible system with bibliometric data from Scopus

Evaluation Resources

Think Check Submit - An initiative and checklist to help you ensure that you are publishing in a credible publication

Journal Evaluation Tool - A rubric for the evaluation of journals created by the Loyola Marymount University Libraries

Predatory journals: no definition, no defence - A nature article defining and discussing predatory publishing

Think Check Attend - An initiative and checklist to help you ensure that you are presenting at a credible conference

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