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.
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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:
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:
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:
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:
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
Select Discipline-Specific Publishers
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.