Strategic Publishing: Journal articles

It is important to apply a range of criteria when deciding where to publish. Use the following questions as a starting point to inform your decision.

Relevance

• Is the journal relevant to the research discipline?

Measures of quality and esteem

• Is the journal peer reviewed?
• Does the journal have an impact factor?
• What is the SJR rank of the journal?
• Is the journal included on the ERA Journal List?
• Is the journal included on a discipline ranking list?
• Is the publisher of the journal a member of a recognised professional association committed to best practice in publishing?
• Does the publisher display unethical or deceptive publishing practices?

Access and discoverability

• Are all articles in the journal available open access? If not, what is the journal's policy on open access to content?
• If the journal is not open access, how widely is it available to local, national and international readership?
• Is the journal indexed by any of the discipline-specific databases in your research area, or the well-known citation databases?

Timeliness

• Is it important to publish your results quickly?

Contact your Research Liaison Librarian

Download the Journal Quality Indicators checklist

Check the Think Check Submit website