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Where to Publish Your Research

This guide will show you tools to help you identify where to submit your manuscript.

When you have a manuscript to submit for publication, it can be challenging to find the right journal in which to publish. Finding an appropriate journal will maximize your success with getting your manuscript accepted, enhance the visibility of your research, and broaden the impact your research will have on science or the community.

Tips for Successful Selection: Basic Steps

  • Find journals in the field
  • Compare journal characteristics and competitive factors
  • Make sure the journal's scope matches your needs
  • Make sure the journal accepts the type of article you want to submit
  • Check the "Instructions for Authors" thoroughly
  • Ensure that you have assessed whether or not the journal is a questionable journal (predatory journal)
  • Look to see if your journal is indexed for MEDLINE

Tools to Compare Journals and their Competitive Factors

Characteristics of journals can be compared quantifiably.  Factors such as the number of citations, number of documents published, and total references in the journal can be used to calculate scores for the journals. 

Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports is a subscription resource that can be used to compare journals' characteristics including Journal Impact Factor, Article Influence Score, and Total Cites. 

Learn more about Journal Citation Reports 
 

SCImago Journal and Country Rank

SCImago is a free resource that uses citation data from Scopus to provide journal impact data.  It provides journal rankings by journal country of origin and numerous visual representations of journal impact data.

Learn more about SCImago
 

Google Scholar Metrics

Google Scholar Metrics provide an easy way for authors to quickly gauge the visibility and influence of recent articles in scholarly publications. Scholar Metrics summarize recent citations to many publications, to help authors as they consider where to publish their new research.

Select a subcategory in Health and Medicine to rank journals in your field
 

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

DOAJ is a directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. Open access journals from all countries and in all languages can apply for inclusion. DOAJ provides information such as publication fees and author copyrights. You can use the filters on the left-side of the page to limit to subject categories. 

Learn more about DOAJ, and the DOAJ Seal.

Identify Journals that are Indexed for MEDLINE

If you want your research to be findable in PubMed, try to publish in a journal that is indexed for MEDLINE. PubMed is a free bibliographic database that is widely used by biomedical researchers. Articles that are published in MEDLINE journals get medical subject headings (MeSH) applied to each article, making them more apt to be found in PubMed searches.

Journals that are selected for MEDLINE undergo a vetting process that decides whether the scientific and editorial character and quality of a journal merits its inclusion in MEDLINE. There are over 5,200 titles that are currently indexed for MEDLINE. 

Find out if a journal in indexed for MEDLINE. 

Search the journal title in the NLM Catalog. In the results list, look to see if the journal is "currently indexed for MEDLINE." Click the journal title to view more information such as coverage in MEDLINE and the MeSH terms that are applied to the journal. 

Tips from the screenshot above: A) Use the "Currently Indexed for MEDLINE filter on the left side of the page to limit the results list. B) JAMA Neurology is currently indexed for MEDLINE. C) Archives of Neurology is not currently indexed for MEDLINE, but if you click the journal title link, you will see that this journal changed names in 2013 to JAMA Neurology.

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