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PREPARE Workshop: Home

Also see. And a few definitions.

Also see the Library's webpages on Scholarly Communication.  This guide is good too.

Blacklist --  A blacklist tells you not to publish in listed journals.  Blacklists are problematic, and we do not offer one.

Whitelist -- Tell you it's OK to publish in included journals.  They meet someone's minimum criteria.  The Library has Cabell's Journalytics and our article databases can be used as whitelists: If Web of Science, if EBSCO, if ProQuest include a journal, then it's reasonably well screened.  The MEDLINE component of PubMed is useful also.  Maybe the best source is the Dimensions database's Journal List filter, which allows you to screen journals using the Norwegian or Australian (ERA) approved lists.

Predatory journals -- Want your money, fail to do useful peer review, and could possibly damage your reputation.  Not all journals that have been called predatory deserve the label.

But these concepts do not really help much in finding a journal to publish in.  Ask your librarian to help, if you need it.

Where to publish? And additional repositories

Where to publish? Where not to publish?

  • You usually know some of the journals you'd like to target.  But there has been an explosion of choices.
  • Search your topic and see which journals are publishing on it.
  • Look at journal rankings in your target subdiscipline(s).  Scimago, Google Scholar, Eigenfactor, Journal Citation Reports.  The library no longer subscribes to JCR and Eigenfactor no longer updates.
  • Use the several services that will analyze your title and/or abstract and suggest journals: JANE, EndNote Online, and others.  (I really like Jane, but it uses PubMed.  If your discipline is not indexed by PubMed, don't use it.)
  • Look up possible journals in Cabell's and Ulrich's.  Is the journal indexed in PubMed, WoS, GS, and others?  (Cabell's is useful, but only covers some of the university's research areas,)
  • Look at blacklists of predatory journals and publishers, like Beall's (but this is no longer updated).  Search for news or social media comment on your journal.
  • Look at the DOAJ for Open Access journals.
  • Study journals' webpages (and of course, what they publish).
  • Use ThinkCheckSubmit and other checklists. 
  • Ask for help.  I can look at these questions or particular journals (and sometimes contact listed editors) for you.
  • Example: Journal of Environmental and Public Health

Additional repositories and social networks for (more) open access

  • Legal and workflow obstacles.  Sherpa Romeo.  What publishers permit.  Search by journal title.
  • Please think first of our institutional repository, NC DOCKS.
  • PubMed Central (especially if you get NIH funding) and several similar, but smaller repositories.
  • ResearchGate and similar -- recent changes
  • Personal and departmental websites, also lab websites.  (I think these should be used more heavily.)
  • Pre-print repositories, association repositories (e.g.,ASHA)

See also Peter Suber's How to make your own work open access.

This chart gives a rough idea of what publishers allow.  Check the specific journal.

Embargo periods, as of early 2018. Expect variation among journals of the same publisher.

You can use these in addition to Sherpa Romeo.

Assessing your research impact -- methods and measures

h-index

What is it? Variations. Not necessarily the best measure for most early career researchers.

An h-index of 5 means 5 articles (items) cited at least 5 times

Google Scholar is easiest, but look at Web of Science's.   I can look that up for you.  (Also look at Scopus', if you can access).  Here is Google Scholar's page about setting up a profile.

Alternative that might be useful -- Do it yourself analysis

Track one by one who is citing you.  Google Scholar, Web of Science, and other sources.  Scopus too, in PlumX (in APPsearch).  (This is a task that a grad assistant could do, but I can do some for you also, if you're not in a hurry.)

Altmetrics

Altmetric donut, PlumX (APPsearch), and other services, but fairly easy to search among components (Facebook, Twitter, news, etc.) you care about most.  One measure you will also see is downloads.

Examples: Donut in Wiley, Springer, Sage.  PlumX in APPsearch and Science Direct.  Also see Dimensions' and change Sort by -- Altmetric Attention Score.

Librarians

John Wiswell -- librarian for health sciences and for Physics & Astronomy

wiswellj@appstate.edu, 828-262-7853