University Libraries

Building a Research Pathway & more things to consider when you are looking for the 'right' journal:

1. What are your research goals?
2. Who would benefit from this research? Is your audience broader than you think it is? Think interdisciplinary.
3. Have you considered publishing in a journal that is Open Access?
4. Does your funder or tenure process mandate a specific type of journal?
5. Does the journal HAVE to be peer-reviewed?
6. Don't just aim for the most prestigious (highest impact factor) journal and work your way down. You need to consider the journal's scope, your goals, and the audience.

Where and how to look for journals for your work

• You probably have articles that you have saved to use as references for your work. What journals were they published in?
• Search Scopus by journal (source) category to peruse peer-reviewed journals.
• If you are looking at journal impact (CiteScore or Impact Factor), Scopus is a great place to look for those calculations.
• Ask your librarian or colleagues for suggestions.
• Each publisher (Elsevier, Sage, etc.) will likely have a a journal finder tool. These often allow you to copy and paste your title and/or abstract to search for journals on your research scope.
• Journal Author Name Estimator (JANE) - Copy and paste your abstract to receive suggested journals.

If a journal is peer-reviewed (often referred as refereed) then it has a process for experts in the field of the journal to evaluate/review the articles proposed to the journal before they are published.

If you found the journal in the library database Scopus, then the journal is peer-reviewed as everything in Scopus is peer-reviewed. If another source then you will want to check the journal's website. Often the journal will have information on the peer-review process, if there is one, under the About section of the journal.