Choosing which scholarly journal to publish in is an important decision for any researcher. But it can be a daunting prospect.

“Choosing the right venue for the publication of your work can be challenging when there are so many options available,” says Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director of F1000.

As of July 2019, there were more than 80,000 academic, peer-reviewed English language journals in existence, one study found —and that number is likely even higher today.

Researchers want to make sure their work is widely seen in order to maximize its impact. But there are many other aspects to think about as well. When choosing the best journal for one’s work, here are four key factors to consider.

Credibility

Publishing in a journal that isn’t reputable can reduce the credibility of research, hinder one’s career, and lessen the impact of research findings.

When choosing a journal, researchers should talk with their colleagues, supervisors, and librarians to find out which publications they read regularly and which they perceive as the most highly respected in their field.

A rigorous peer review process is essential for validating the credibility and integrity of one’s work. Peer review not only confirms that the research is scientifically valid and meets high standards of quality; it also helps improve the quality of articles submitted for publication.

Visibility and impact

In order to have a broad impact in their field, research findings need to be widely disseminated and read. While a journal’s Impact Factor is one measure that researchers can use to determine the scope of its reach, there are many other common metrics as well. For instance, Scopus calculates three measures of a journal’s impact. Researchers can also refer to a journal’s Google Scholar rankings to assess its impact.

When evaluating journals, find out where (and how widely) they index their research articles. This practice ensures that others can easily discover the research through scholarly platforms and networks.

Publishing research in an open-access journal can also increase the visibility of this work. Publishing research openly makes it more widely accessible to researchers, funders, policy makers, and the public at large.

With the right open-access journal, researchers can link their findings and datasets to enable more people to find and replicate their work and publish new versions of their research. Making the data openly available allows for validation of the research and a deeper understanding of the findings. Plus, research suggests it can generate up to 25 percent more citations.

F1000Research is an open-access platform with dedicated publishing venues focusing on specific disciplines, such as Routledge Open Research (Humanities and Social Sciences), Health Open Research (Medicine and Health), Nuclear Science and Technology Open Research (Nuclear Research), and MedEdPublish (Medical and Health Professions Education). F1000Research supports a wide variety of article types and data formats, and all articles undergo a rigorous open peer review process.

“The F1000-based venues use a model designed to help you maximize the impact and credit for all of your work,” Lawrence says. “The broad range of article type options aim to support you in easily sharing all types of research outputs you might produce. Rapid early sharing through the post-publication peer review model ensures that experts in the field benefit from your work early and can start to build that impact while reviewers and the broader community add their comments and suggestions on how the work can be improved.

Speed and simplicity

While peer review is fundamental to ensuring the quality and integrity of the research process, researchers also want to publish their work with minimal effort and delays.

Finding a journal that balances the need for rigorous review with the need for speed and simplicity is also important, particularly in fields such as medicine where timeliness can be critical. There is a big difference between waiting weeks, months, or even years to be published.

When comparing journals to publish in, find out how long the process typically takes from submission to publication. Ask what this process entails and what steps are required of researchers, and consider these factors in the decision making process.

Transparency

Transparency in the publishing and peer review process is important for many reasons. Transparency during publication helps researchers understand where their work is in the publication cycle and keeps them fully informed during the process. What’s more, transparency within the peer review process is fundamental to ensuring quality and accountability, making it easier for readers to know if they can trust the research findings.

“The focus on transparency across the model—around research data, methods, code, and the peer review process—can enable you to gain credit for all these important outputs and activities; increase the use, reuse, and potential impact of your work; and better demonstrate its quality and rigor,” Lawrence says.

Choosing the right journal for one’s research ensures that this work reaches the widest possible audience. It can bolster the work’s credibility and enhance the public’s trust in the research findings. And it can make the publication process as timely and seamless as possible for researchers. By paying attention to these four factors, researchers can select an appropriate venue for their work to have a broad impact.

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