Choosing a publication channel

Check in the largest reference databases (Scopus and Web of Science) which journals in your discipline they index. Journals indexed by the largest reference databases always get best visibility. The analytic tools of reference databases provide an easy way to get a list of journals that have published articles on your research topic.

Journals indexed into Scopus and Web of Science reference databases are mainly peer reviewed.

A number of deceptive journals have started to turn up among open access journals. The main objective of these so-called predatory journals is the collect article processing charges (APCs). They may promise a quick publication process with a low APC, but the peer review may not be conducted by experts or it may not be done at all. The long-term availability of articles published in these journals may also be unreliable.

How to recognize a predatory journal?

• Does Scopus, Web of Science or any major reference database index the journal in question?
• Is the journal listed in the DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals? DOAJ contains peer-reviewed high quality open access journals which have applied for inclusion and fulfilled the criteria. The absence of a journal from the directory does not necessarily indicate that it is predatory.
• Is the journal classified at least as Level 1 in the Publication Forum JUFO? Journals that have been evaluated but do not meet all the Level 1 criteria are marked as category 0. This group also contains journals suspected to be predatory.
• Think. Check. Submit  (Video, 1:58 min)  

Journal home page offers a lot of information about the content and quality og the journal. However, it is useful to check the information shown from original sources. Examples of such information are e.g. journal impact factor (IF) and existence in Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

More information: bibliometriikka@oulu.fi