Scholarly Communication: Publishing

NIH Statement on Article Publication Resulting from NIH Funded Research. NIH Notice Number NOT-OD-18-011.
"...authors are encouraged to publish papers arising from NIH-funded research in reputable journals."

Considering where to publish? Use these resources to research journals, publisher agreements, author fees and funder requirements to find the journal that meets your needs for widest dissemination of your research.

General Resources

• Journal Citation Reports
• ULRICHSWEB Global Serials Directory

Journal Finder Tools - automatically find best journal match when you add your abstract

• Elsevier Journal Finder
• HelioBlast
• JANE: Journal/Author Name Estimator
• JournalGuide
• Springer Journal Selector
• Open Access Journal Options Flowchart
• EIGENFACTOR Index of Open Access Fees

Open Access Resources  SEE OPEN ACCESS SECTION.

CONSIDER COPYRIGHT BEFORE MAKING FINAL DECISION!
SEE COPYRIGHT for AUTHORS SECTION.

The following  classes are available through the HSLS Class series. (Sign up here to receive the HSLS Class emails.) Watch for scheduling announcements throughout each semester, or contact Andrea Ketchum to request a special presentation for a class or event. 

• Recognizing Predatory Journals: Flattery and Fibs
• Copyright and Fair Use in Education
• ORCID iDs: Boost Your Discoverability
• Research Metrics and Publication Reports: Showcasing Impact
• Free Images (and More) on the Web and How to Cite Them
• NIH Public Access Policy Boot Camp: Getting in Shape for NIH
• SciENcv: Automate Your Biosketch
• Altmetrics: Filling in the Gaps

In spite of efforts to create a "blacklist" of predatory journals, there can never be a perfect list of journals to avoid. The best defense is author awareness of the signs and standards of legitimate scientific journals. 

#1: Check to see if the journal is indexed in a well-known database such as MEDLINE, Scopus OR Web of Science. If the journal is not found among these indices, beware!

• MEDLINE journal list (checkmark filter for "currently indexed in MEDLINE"). 
• Also check the journal lists for Scopus and Web of Science.
• Note that Google Scholar DOES NOT COUNT as an indexer. All predatory journals are in Google Scholar.

#2: Read Should I publish in this journal? HSLS Update, January 2016 issue.

#3: Criteria for high quality journals can be found in this excellent blog post:

Submitting to a journal commits you to it for six weeks to six months (or longer) – so choose your journal carefully. Patrick Dunleavy, The Impact Blog, the London School of Economics and Political Science, November 10, 2016.

The additional resources below will help authors identify high quality, reliable publishers and journals.

List of academic journals by preprint policy
This color-coded list of academic journals provides a quick way to find submission policies regarding use of preprints prior to publication. Most publishers and journals permit this, but some do not, so it is advisable to confirm this in advance.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) defines a preprint as "a scholarly manuscript posted by the author(s) in an openly accessible platform, usually before or in parallel with the peer review process."  Examples of platforms currently available to authors in biomedicine are listed below:

• search.bioPreprint, the HSLS federated preprint search.
  • One-click search of preprints from arXiv (Quantitative Biology), BioRxiv, F1000Research, PeerJ Preprints, preprints and Wellcome Open Research.
• OSF Preprints
  • Divided into ten broad subjects, including Medicine and Health Sciences and Life Sciences.
• Preprints with The Lancet
  • A free option for all authors and co-authors of all research papers submitted to any Lancet family journal. This is a 6-month trial starting in June, 2018.