Areas of Interest in Scholarly Publishing
Deciding Where to Publish
Deciding where to publish is highly dependent on your discipline's preferences as well as your department's requirements for promotion & tenure.
Most researchers evaluate potential publishers and journals by their reputation but don't forget to consider ethical concerns regarding open access and copyright terms.
Review the journals in your discipline and consider supporting those who follow an open access model by allowing you to self-archive your work and/or provide immediate public access to your work.
To find out which journals in your field provide open access, start by searching Sherpa/RoMeo, a resource that provides information about publisher copyright & self-archiving policies. To learn more about negotiating your rights with publishers, see Author Rights & Publication Agreements. To learn more about the Open Access Movement and open access journals, visit Open Access.
Journal Rankings
JCR: Journal Citation Reports -- A resources tool for journal evaluation and comparison of usage patterns for scholarly journals, using citation data drawn from titles worldwide. Among other data, JCR can provide a list of the most frequently cited titles, those with highest impact (i.e., the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year), and those with the greatest immediacy (i.e., how quickly the average article in a journal is cited).
Coverage:
- Sciences -- approximately 6,500 titles worldwide
- Social Sciences -- approximately 1,700 titles worldwide
- Arts & Humanities -- not covered
- JCR: Journal Citation Reports (2009+)Provides citation data for evaluating and comparing scholarly journals.
*2000-2005 content is available in the Main Library CD-ROM Collection
Call Number Q1.J67
- Eigenfactor: Ranking & Mapping Scientific Knowledge"The citation data used at Eigenfactor come from Thomson Scientific's Journal Citation Reports (JCR)"
- SCImago Journal & Country Rank"a portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains."
NOTE: UCF does not subscribe to Scopus - Journal & Academic Rankings (Science Gateway)"Science Gateway is a directory of links and resources for biomedical science and research. It is compiled by a group of scientists located in Europe and North America."
- Scopus PreviewUCF does not subscribe to Scopus. Scopus Preview provides free journal rankings and author metrics to non-subscribers.
Resources about the Use of Journal Rankings
- Assessing Journal Quality (Auburn University)- Citation Analysis Debate
- Impact Factor Debate - EASE statement on inappropriate use of impact factorsEuropean Association of Science Editors
Additional Resources
- Scholarly PublishingThe UCF Libraries' Scholarly Communication Advisory Group's page with information on scholarly publishing.
- Publishing OpportunitiesVisit this guide for discipline specific information on publishing resources
- Open Citation ProjectA bibliography of studies that analyze the citation rates of open access works.