As a researcher you will be encouraged to publish in quality, high-impact scholarly journals. It is important that you know what to look for in a journal aside from a high impact factor. Below is a listing of other factors to consider.
Scholarly journals generally have an editorial board, use some type of peer review process, and will publish the primary results of research and summaries or reviews of previous research in their field of academic interest. They may also include academic book reviews. Many, but not all, professional journals are also peer reviewed.
Articles in popular journals and trade publications on the other hand are generally not peer reviewed, favor a much more informal writing style, and often have no, or only very brief, bibliographies.
The most respected journals are peer-reviewed or refereed. Manuscripts submitted to this type of journal must be evaluated by an editor, an editorial panel, or a panel of experts (peers) in the field before being accepted for publication. In blinded peer review, the author's name and institution are concealed from the reviewer in order to reduce reviewer bias.
A journal’s editorial policy and/or instructions for authors will often indicate if and how articles are peer reviewed. This information is usually located on the publisher’s web site and in at least one printed issue of the journal each year. This is also where you will find the scope and editorial focus of the journal to check.
Widely indexed articles are more likely to be found by other researchers during their literature review process, and a respected and important journal will be indexed in multiple major journal indexes. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory lists the databases in which a journal is indexed. Once in the full record for a particular journal, click to expand the section called Online Availability to see a listing of the databases in which the journal is indexed in full text. Click on the section entitled Abstracting & Indexing to see a list of the databases that provide abstracts-level (i.e. no full text) access to the journal.
Circulation count is a measure of the journal’s audience and hence the potential exposure for your article. A particular journal may not be peer reviewed, for example, but it may be distributed to large numbers of person within an academic community (as part of membership in a professional organization, for example) and may be a valuable publication in this regard. Some journal websites include circulation information.
A journal's acceptance rate refers to the number of manuscripts accepted for publication relative to the total number of manuscripts submitted within the last year. Journals with lower acceptance rates are more selective and, therefore, considered to be more prestigious.
The method of calculating acceptance rates varies among journals. Some journals use all manuscripts received as a base for computing this rate. Other journals allow the editor to choose which papers are sent to reviewers and calculate the acceptance rate on those that are reviewed that is less than the total manuscripts received. Also, many editors do not maintain accurate records on this data and provide only a rough estimate. Furthermore, the number of people associated with a particular area of specialized influences the acceptance rate. If only a few people can write papers in an area, it tends to increase the journal's acceptance rate. Some tips and resources on finding journal acceptances are below