Professional & Academic Writing & Publishing for STEM Graduate Students & Faculty

This page has information and resources on authoring journal articles and choosing a journal to submit to. Since journal articles are by far the most common venue for submitting research, this page will be the most detailed.

Note: If you are a graduate student, ask your supervisor/advisor if there are expectations for where you submit. 

The short answer is: the best journal for your topic. 

If you need to identify a journal, the easiest way to determine that is to search a library database for your topic and find what journals are most often publishing on your topic. Here are some steps to doing this:

1. Search your topic in the appropriate database. You should be fairly specific in your search, not just give a general subject area. use at least 2-3 specific words (example: search Poisson and Euler-Maxwell) rather than a general subject (example: differential equations). If you need help with searching, see our Choosing & Using Sources book.
   • Scopus or Web of Science are good for most topics, but may miss some niche and some society journals.
   • Subject-specific databases, such as MathSciNet (mathematics and statistics) and GeoRef (earth sciences) will get more titles in a discipline. Not every database has its own subject area.  See our subject guides to find other options.
   • If you're writing on education topics within any discipline, look at ERIC. Be sure to select your targeted education level below the search boxes since ERIC covers education at all levels.
2. If you're after journals, consider applying a journal article limit before or after search. Most databases also cover conference papers and books. Also consider language limits. 
3. After completing your search, most databases will list the source titles. You can then see what titles publish most heavily on your topic. You can either look closer at those items in that database or go to explore your journal further at the publisher site. Here are some examples of what these lists look like from some of the databases we mentioned - these are found on the left side of the screen after searching:

Scopus: 

MathSciNet:: 

GeoRef: 

These are journals that may be good fits for your planned publication. Your next step is to find the homepage for the journal and learn more about its requirements, scope, etc. You can choose to do a simple web search (Google, Bing) or you can look at our Online Journals List. Note that there may be journals with similar or in some cases, the same name.

Look for a section such as "About," "Scope," "Submit," or "For Authors" to find out info about the journal and requirements.

If you have a specific journal in mind, look for an author template and citation style requirements so you can begin your writing with the correct format and style and not have to make changes later.

Many people want to target journals with high impact factors for their submission. Impact factor is a proprietary number calculated and available via Journal Citation Reports. This tool allows you to see data about how well a journal is cited and see titles ranked by discipline. Some caveats about this information:

• If a journal is not in this tool, it does not have an impact factor as this number is proprietary.
• If a journal does not have an impact factor, that does not mean it is not a good journal. It may be from a niche publisher, a new journal, or there may be other reasons for this.
• There are other places to get impact information for journals, such as Scopus and MathSciNet collect their own data and impact values, for example, in addition to some free online options, like Eigenfactor.org.
• These numbers vary by discipline. For example, a high impact factor in one discipline may be a middle or even low one in another.
• Don't submit to a journal just because it has great metrics. It may not be the best fit for your topic. Many high impact factor titles are also very selective about publishing content that is "ground breaking."  

Predatory journals are journals that are really after money and do not care about quality. They will often send out mass (but not necessarily targeted to a specific audience) emails to solicit submissions. Beall's List is one of the most popular sites to find out more information about specific titles and publishers. However, this list is not perfect as new titles are appearing all of the time. When in doubt, feel free to contact me or an appropriate subject librarian.

A few things to consider when looking at a journal:

• Who is on the editorial board? Are these respected researchers in the field? Are they from appropriate institutions (universities, research labs, etc.). It can be helpful to see who is publishing in the journal as well.
• Is the publisher fairly known (a major commercial publisher, a college/university, or society)? Don't discount small publishers.
• Does something look "off" to you? For example, is content missing, are there large fees, is peer review not mentioned, etc.?

Yes! The University Libraries has options to help with getting journal articles open access. See information about transformative agreements for details, applicable journal titles for each publisher, and the latest information.

We have options for specific publishers, including:

• Cambridge University Press
• Elsevier (Hybrid)
• Institute of Physics (IOP) 
• Royal Society of Chemistry FAQ
• Springer (Hybrid)
• Taylor & Francis
• Wiley

Below you will see links to journal lists for select major general and subject-specific publishers. From there, you can search and/or browse options are available.​​​​​​ There are many more small publishers and independent journals to choose from. 

Large Multi-Subject Publishers

• Cambridge University Press
• De Gruyter
• Elsevier
• Frontiers
• Nature
• Oxford University Press
• Sage
• Science (AAAS)
• Springer
• Taylor & Francis
• Wiley

Select Discipline-Specific Publishers

• Astronomy:
  • AAS
• Biology
  • ASM
• Chemistry:
  • ACS
  • RSC
• Computer Science
  • ACM
  • IEEE
• Earth Sciences
  • AGU (published by Wiley)
  • GSA
• Engineering:
  • AIAA
  • ASCE
  • ASEE
  • ASM International
  • ASME
  • SAE
• Geography
  • AAG
  • GSA
• Mathematics/Statistics:
  • AMS
  • ASA (published by Taylor & Francis)
  • EMS
  • SIAM
  • MSP
• Medicine
  • AMA
  • BMJ
• Physics:
  • APS
  • AIP
  • IOP
  • Optica

Interested in open access only journals? Visit DOAJ and search the titles or filter by subject on the list. Be sure to evaluate the journals on this list as they are from many different sources.

These YouTube videos from journal publishers are on writing and submitting journal articles. 

• How to Get Published in an Academic Journal (Sage)
• What to think about before you start to write a journal article (Taylor & Francis)
• Top Ten Tips for writing and submitting a journal article (IOP)
• Which APS journal is right for your research? (APS)
• Publishing Open Access with Cambridge University Press
• How to Get Published: Submitting Your Paper (Sage)
• ACS Publishing Panel: Publishing advice, tips, and tricks (ACS)
• Publishing in SIAM Journals: What and How (SIAM)
• Using ACM Word Template: Video Tutorial (ACM)
• From the Editor of IEEE Access: How to Get Published in an Open Access Journal (IEEE)
• The Journey of an Article at Springer (Springer)