Deciding which journal to submit to is complicated. Consider:
- What journals do you and your colleagues review on a regular basis?
- Which professional organizations do you belong to? Do they publish journals?
- What's the scope and aim of the journal?
- Is the journal searchable in the major databases, such as PubMed or CINAHL?
- What's the prestige of the journal in your field and in health literature in general?
- Quantifiable measurements are called Impact Factors (IF).
Below you'll find links to resources that might help you with your decision. But don't be afraid to ask for advice! Talk to your colleagues, advisors/mentors, librarian, etc.
Help writing/submitting your article:
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Instructions to Authors in the Health Sciences
This website links to websites that provide instructions to authors regarding submitting manuscripts to 6000+ journals in the health sciences. Search by exact journal title or keywords within the journal title.
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Guide to Scientific Writing - American Association for Clinical Chemistry
This free resource is made up of a series of educational articles on how to "design and write scientific research papers for publication." The articles are helpful to a wide variety of disciplines, not just chemistry. Just remember that ultimately you need to follow the requirements of the journal you're submitting to and/or your citation style (APA).
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Choosing a journal based on topic:
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Jane - Journal/Author Name Estimator
Jane is a search engine that you can use to come up with journals that might be interested in publishing your research. It works by matching words from your abstract or author-supplied keywords to the millions of records in PubMed/MEDLINE.
Choosing a journal based on accessibility
Not all journals are accessible to all readers. Many journals charge subscription fees, and are paywalled to readers who are not affiliated to a subscriber. If you suspect your audience may not have an employer with database subscriptions, then publishing with an open access journal may be important to you. Keep in mind that different open access journals have different models for funding, some charge what are known as "author publication fees", while others do not.
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DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals
a very well known and reputable database of open access journals. Try searching (athletic OR athlete OR sport) to find a journal with evidence relevant to the discipline of Athletic Training
Choosing a journal based on its reputation:
Journal, article, and author metrics are various mathematical formulas that have been developed to calculate scholarly impact within a discipline. Most of these formulas work by tabulating the number of citations against the total citations possible in a field or journal.
The "Impact Factor" journal metric developed by Clarivate Analytics of the Web of Science Group is the journal metric most people use when discussing journal metrics, though people also use this term when they mean the larger generic concept.
The metrics of a journal may matter to you if:
- you are required to publish in journals of a certain Impact Factor to fulfill your promotion and tenure requirements
- you want your research to be read by all of the people who value journal metrics and read highly rated journals first
Different types of journal metrics:
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"Impact Factor" on Journal Citation Reports
The Journal Citation Reports weighs and ranks journals by a number of criteria, including total cites and the Impact Factor.
"Impact factor" is a metric which divides the number of citations an article receives by the total number of citable articles published in a given timeframe. This metric is proprietary, accessible within the database Journal Citation Reports, owned by the company Clarivate.
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Eigenfactor
Citations to articles from the most recent five full years, divided by the total number of articles from the most recent five full years, but weeds out journal self-citations. It also, unlike the Journal Citation Reports impact factor, cuts across both the hard sciences and the social sciences.
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PlumX Metrics, a type of alt-metrics
alt metrics emerged as an alternative way of measuring the impact of research and researchers by counting and validating interested and engagement with articles and scholarship beyond citations.
PlumX is now owned by the publisher Elsevier.
The five categories of PlumX metrics include citations, usage, captures, mentions, and social media
Choosing a journal based on whether its searchable in databases:
