Research Guides: Indigenous Health: Publish your work

Publishing your work

Publishing your work on Indigenous Health issues means balancing the needs of your audience, your work, and your own professional and personal goals. Here are some qualities of a journal to consider:

Is it paywalled?

A lot of academic journals are "paywalled", meaning a user needs to belong to an institution which pays a subscription fee, or they personally will have to pay a subscription fee for access. This frequently means that Indigenous communities cannot access research for, on, or about themselves.

An alternative to paywalled journals are "open access" journals, which use a variety of licenses or institutional supports to make their journals and articles freely accessible to anyone online. To learn more, contact Devon or check out this guide on scholarly publishing, or this guide sub-section on open access licensing (creative commons).

Who is your audience?

Not only will knowing your intended audience help you navigate whether you need an open access journal, it will also help you figure out if the folks you want reading your article will actually find the journal you are considering. Think about whether your work needs to be in a specific society journal, or a more interdisciplinary, or even international publication. Perhaps you want to consider a completely different method of disseminating your findings like a social media campaign or video production.

Do you want to retain rights to your intellectual property?

Traditionally, upon publishing, authors would sign over copyright over their intellectual property to the journal publisher. This meant they could not publish that same work elsewhere, and it might even impact different kinds of dissemination of the same research. Recently, new models of publication have emerged which allow authors to publish in a journal while retaining their intellectual property rights (creative commons licenses are one pathway). This information can be hard to find a journal website, but some state it in the submission information. You can also try to puzzle it out by looking at the licensing info on published articles in a journal you are considering.

Indigenous Health Journals

These journals are mostly not listed in traditional academic journal article databases such as PubMed or CINAHL. This means that you will need to separately search each journal website (in addition to other database searches you might carry out) in order to be sure to include that journal in your search. You can double-check whether a journal is indexed in a database either by searching for the journal in the database (most have a list of journals they index), or by going to the journal website (typically the About page), and looking to see if they state where the journal is indexed.

Indigenous Health Journals Analysis July 2024
This is a spreadsheet containing data on Indigenous Health journals (impact factors, scope, whether they are open access or paywalled), compiled by Devon Olson, Health Sciences Librarian, in June of 2024

American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research
Open access, peer-reviewed journal, hosted by the Colorado School of Public Health
Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation
"Open access, peer-reviewed, French/English billingual journal published three times a year by the Canadian Evaluation Society. Also includes a permanent section within each issue called "Roots and Relatives" which will "sacredly hold and protect traditional knowledge, respect and assert sovereignty, provide a nurturing space for Indigenous voices, and celebrate Indigenous innovations in evaluation. Roots and Relations is to be a welcoming place for Indigenous graduate students, curious and passionate Indigenous community members, Indigenous practitioners, and Indigenous policy makers, leaders, and scholars on Kukuna Ahkuy (Mother Earth) to share their important work."
The International Journal of Indigenous Health
peer-reviewed, open access research article journal hosted by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Journal of American Indian & Alaska Native Health
Peer-reviewed, only one 2015 issue apparently was published
Journal of Indigenous Wellbeing: Te Mauri - Pimatisiwin
Peer-reviewed, open access, international in scope, with one issue published annually in the spring
Native Social Work Journal
open access, produced by the School of Native Human Services - Native Social Work Journal, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario. Last biennial issue was in 2014, may no longer be in production.
Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health
peer reviewed, open access, "The Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health is dedicated to fostering respectful collaboration and the co-creation of knowledge within the field of Indigenous health. Grounded in traditional teachings and an Indigenous scholarly lens, the Journal aims to enhance our understanding of Indigenous peoples’ health and its many interconnected contributing factors such as the Land, culture, healthcare and education."
Journal of Indigenous Research
Published by Utah State University, the journal aims to “…provide research data in a way that is understandable to the average person and will also specifically indicate an application of the material presented. These 1500-2000 word articles will be written in non-technical language, state some outcome of the research, explain the importance of the outcome for Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian, Maori people, and will be from the areas of the environment, public health, psychology, general health or education”
International Indigenous Policy Journal
"I want to welcome you to the International Indigenous Policy Journal (IIPJ). An editorial and advisory board made up of experts in Indigenous issues leads this peer-reviewed journal. Regionally, they represent North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. IIPJ is a peer-reviewed, policy-relevant research journal addressing issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples throughout the world. IIPJ has a very specific set of goals: To promote evidence-based policy making; To encourage quality research based on partnerships with Indigenous Peoples; To develop networks of policy researchers and policy makers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and their communities; To improve scholarship related to Indigenous issues; To spark debate on important policy issues facing Indigenous Peoples around the world."
alterNative
General, “publishes scholarly research on Indigenous worldviews and experiences of decolonization from Indigenous perspectives from around the world”, published by Sage, a for-profit publisher, and indexed in academic databases
First Nations Health and Wellbeing - The Lowitja Journal
"First Nations* Health and Wellbeing - The Lowitja Journal is a community-controlled, international, community member, inter- and multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal that is dedicated to expanding access to First Nations research, increasing First Nations scientific and community collaboration, and contributing to the First Nations research academy.

This journal is owned by the Lowitja Institute, Australia's first community-controlled research institute, and supported and published by Elsevier, under the governance of the National Health Leadership Forum (NHLF) representing the Coalition of the Peaks in Australia."

Interdisciplinary Indigenous Studies Journals

American Indian Quarterly
paywalled, peer reviewed, "a forum for diverse voices and perspectives spanning a variety of academic disciplines. The common thread is AIQ’s commitment to publishing work that contributes to the development of American Indian studies as a field and to the sovereignty and continuance of American Indian nations and cultures. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, AIQ features reviews of books, films, and exhibits."
Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society
This journal shares work purposefully engaged in the decolonization process, regardless of discipline or field, encouraging work that actively seeks undisciplinary connections that work both against and beyond the Western academy. (new issues ceased in 2018)
First Peoples Child & Family Review
The First Peoples Child & Family Review is an open-access, interdisciplinary, and peer-reviewed journal honouring the voices and perspectives of First peoples and non-Indigenous allies and supporters.
International Indigenous Policy Journal
"IIPJ is a peer-reviewed, policy-relevant research journal addressing issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples throughout the world."
International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies
An international, open-access, double anonymous peer-reviewed, scholarly publication. As Critical Indigenous Studies is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field the journal's epistemological framework encompasses but is not restricted to Sociology, Law, Literature, Psychology, Education, Anthropology, History, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Visual and Performing Arts, Cultural studies, Queer studies, Feminism, Human Geography, Environmentalism, Postcolonial studies and Race studies. The journal brings together emergent and ground breaking research in the field of Indigenous studies within the global community offering scope for critical international engagement and debate.
Journal of Indigenous Research
open access, "The mission of the KI is to centralize access to educational, health, psychological and environmental research, to disseminate research conducted in Indian Country, to provide a community accessible outlet for Indigenous research, to provide a comprehensive data base of Indigenous research available to the professional and scientific community and to assist in training of Native researchers. The Journal of Indigenous Research is designed to provide research data in a way that is understandable to the average person and will also specifically indicate an application of the material presented. These 1500-2000 word articles will be written in non-technical language, state some outcome of the research, explain the importance of the outcome for Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian, Maori people, and will be from the areas of the environment, public health, psychology, general health or education."
Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal
NAIS is a blind/peer-reviewed scholarly journal published two times a year by The University of Minnesota Press.
Mai Journal
a New Zealand-based journal that publishes multidisciplinary peer-reviewed articles that critically analyse and address indigenous and Pacific issues in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand
American Indian Culture and Research Journal
In print since 1971, the American Indian Culture and Research Journal (AICRJ) is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary journal designed for scholars and researchers. The premier journal in Native American and Indigenous studies, it publishes original scholarly papers and book reviews on a wide range of issues in fields ranging from history to anthropology to cultural studies to education and more. It is published three times per year by the UCLA American Indian Studies Center.
Wicazao Sa Review
“aims to be an interdisciplinary instrument to assist indigenous peoples of the Americas in taking possession of their own intellectual and creative pursuits.”
Canadian Journal of Native Studies
"the journal publishes anthropological, historical, sociological, political, legal, educational and cultural issues affecting First Nations people. "
Settler Colonial Studies
"multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary by nature, encouraging submissions from multiple different academic disciplines, including, but not limited to, history, literature, Indigenous studies, area- and cultural studies, archaeology, anthropology, environmental humanities, genocide studies, and memory studies."
Studies in American Indian Literatures (SAIL)
"SAIL invites the submission of scholarly, critical pedagogical, and theoretical manuscripts focused on any aspect of American Indian literatures as well as the submission of bibliographical essays, review essays, and interviews. SAIL defines ""literatures"" broadly to include all written, spoken, and visual texts created by Native peoples.

SAIL is the official journal of the Association for the Study of American Indian Literature and members receive the journal as a benefit of membership."
Journal of American Indian Education
"a refereed journal publishing original scholarship directly related to the education of American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Indigenous peoples worldwide, including Inuit, Métis, and First Nations of Canada, Māori, Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander peoples, Indigenous peoples of Latin America, Scandinavia, Africa, and others. JAIE strives to improve Indigenous education through empirical research, knowledge generation, and transmission to researchers, communities, classrooms, and diverse educational settings."
Etudes/Inuit/Studies
Études Inuit Studies is devoted to the study of Inuit societies, either traditional or contemporary, in the general perspective of social sciences and humanities (ethnology, politics, archaeology, linguistics, history, etc.).
Indigenous Peoples' Journal of Law, Culture and Resistance
A law journal that publishes writings concerning Native Peoples’ cultures, traditions, and histories.
Cultural survival quarterly
popular press magazine, but rigorous and advocacy-focused