EDD 792: Publishing Your Research: Publishing Research

The first step in publishing your research is finding journals that are a match for your interests. Here are some strategies for creating a list of publications that might be the right outlet for your research...

• Ask your mentors. Your advisors and the faculty you work with most closely will have great advice about which journals might be a good match for you.
• Look over your reference list, what journals are authors publishing in on your topic?
• Use Cabells Journalytics or the Serials Directory to browse education-related journals or look up journals that you have found. Cabell's provides a lot more information on selected journals but the Serials Directory indexes more journals.
  • Recommended Resource: Introduction to Journalytics video
• Search education databases (Education Source, ERIC, PsycINFO, etc.) for work on similar topics and review the results to see where that research is being published. Recommend using Education Source (indexes the most education journals).
• Search for your topic in the Web of Science (WoS), all journals included in the WoS have gone through a rigorous screening process and are considered "high impact" journals. In addition the WoS "Times Cited" feature allows you to determine which are the most cited articles on your topic and which journals they are published in. Please note: WoS does is not exclusively an education journal index.
• Try the Manuscript Matcher from EndNoteWeb - helps you find the most related journals for your manuscript from thousands of journals indexed in the Web of Science. Note: you must have an EndNoteWeb account to use this tool. You can create one here. Click on Matchon the EndNoteWeb toolbar.
• Try the Journal Guide - "a free tool created by a group of software developers, former researchers, and scholarly publishing veterans at Research Square." Mostly for biomedical field but includes some journals from all fields including education.
• Review the websites of journals. Read about the journal's purpose and scope. Browse articles from recent issues. Scan submission guidelines and learn about their review process. Cabell's and SJR Indicators (see below) are good tools to use as they provide links to journal sites.

After you choose some potential journals to publish in, it might be worthwhile to check its impact in the field and acceptance rate. Journal metrics such as Impact Factors, acceptance rates and h-indices can help you determine how a journal stacks up against other journals in the field. Recommend using SJR since its a free resource and is respectable (like Impact Factor but no cost), also includes recommended similar journals and links to journal publication sites

Impact Factors:

The best known journal metric is called Impact Factor from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Unfortunately the library does not have a subscription to JCR. However the library does have a subscription to the Web of Science. You can access a very brief overview of a journal's Impact Factor in the WoS by cllcking on View Journal Impact on the results page for an article.

An Impact Factor reflects the average number of citations a journal receives in one year from articles published the previous past two years. It is frequently used as a data point for comparing the relative importance of journals, though the real value of impact factors is a source of much debate.

These numbers are calculated from citation data in Web of Science (also known as Science and Social Science Citation Indexes). If a particular journal is not indexed in Web of Science, an impact factor will not be available and cannot be calculated. Web of Science's coverage of education journals is far from complete, so it will likely find fewer articles that have cited your work. Consequently, metrics gathered from this tool may seem lower than those from Scopus or Google Scholar.

More about Impact Factors

h5-index:

Find them at: Google Metrics

An h-index is the highest number of articles a journal has published that have been cited at least that many times. For example, an h-index of 57 means a journal has published 57 articles that have been cited at least 57 times. As the number of highly-cited articles rises, so does the h-index. An h-index considers citations over the journal's lifetime (or all the years the journal have been tracked by the tool doing the calculation). A h5-index looks at the most recent 5 years, and is often a better indicator of a journal's current influence.

Google Scholar's coverage of education literature is broader than other citation tracking tools (Web of Science and Scopus), so their h5-indices may be a more accurate representation of an education journal's impact.

More about the h-index

SJR Indictors:

Find them at: Scimago

SJR Indicators are similar to Impact Factors, but they are calculated from citation data in Scopus (a database that KU doesn't  subscribe to). A journal's rank or impact may appear to be different using this metric for several reasons. 1) This calculation uses 3 previous years of citation data (rather than 2-years in Impact Factors and 5-years in Google Scholar h5-indices). 2) This calculation considers the relative influence of the journal where an article was cited. 3) The journal coverage is different. Scopus tracks more education journal citations than Web of Science, and fewer than Google Scholar.

Although the SJR Indicator is not as widely used as Impact Factors and h-indices, the Scimago site offers many other data points scholars may find useful when assessing a journal. It also includes a link out to the journals submission site.

More about SJR

Acceptance Rate:

Find in Cabell's Journalytics

Acceptance rates for education journals can sometimes be found in Cabell's Directories, though this tool is far from extensive in the list of journals they track. If your journal isn't included, or an acceptance rate isn't listed, check on the journal website or contact the editor/publisher.

Select shady publishers have used the open access movement as a cover for taking advantage of scholars in order to make a profit. To protect yourself from publishing scams, be skeptical when…

• There is no review process or the review process is unusually fast
• No revision of your work is required
• You can't find details about the editorial board, the editorial board is questionable, or the higher-profile editors do not list the role on their CVs
• The journal doesn't clearly display guidelines, policies and fees or responses to related questions are vague
• You receive a mass mailing soliciting papers
• The reputation of authors who have published in the journal is questionable

In general, when you encounter a journal you're unfamiliar with, always take the time to investigate its legitimacy before choosing to submit your manuscript for review.

Resources

Check Cabell's Predatory Reports

Check Beall's List of Predatory Publishers

Think, Check, Submit - is a campaign to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research.