LibGuides: Scholarly Publishing: Choose a Journal or Publisher

Determine Journal Quality

Journals can be qualitatively evaluated by their information and attributes. With increasing concerns about deceptive or predatory journals, check a journal's website or its or "About" section to determine the following qualities, and if your manuscript is a good fit for the journal:

Aim and scope
Rates of acceptance
Time between submission to publication
Peer review process
Editors and editorial board
Where it is indexed
Bibliometrics (e.g., Journal Impact Factor, CiteScore)
Open Access (OA) availability
Author Processing Charges (for OA journals)

See this example from Review of Educational Research (RER):

Choose a Journal or Publisher

Consult a journal directory to find a journal's publishing information, search by publishing criteria, and confirm its legitimacy. A directory can address the following:

A journal's review process
Its bibliometrics (journal impact factor, CiteScore, etc.)
Where it is indexed
A journal's audience, aim and scope
Its publication history

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Open Access
DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social science and humanities.
MLA Directory of Periodicals
Provides all information available on the journals and series on the bibliography's Master List of Periodicals. The entries list editorial addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, frequency of publication, descriptions of the periodicals' scopes, circulation figures, subscription prices and addresses, advertising information, and submission guidelines. The directory also provides statistics on how many articles and book reviews the periodicals publish each year, as well as how many are submitted.

Master Journal List (Web of Science Group)
Scientific Society Publisher Alliance (SSPA)
Subjects: Journals published by not-for-profit scientific society SSPA.

Includes: Listing of journals published by SSPA. Includes journal's aims and scope, and links to the submission platform.
Scimago Journal & Country Rankings
SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a publicly available portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database. These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains. Journals can be compared or analyzed separately.

Ulrichsweb.com
Provides information on prices, frequency of publication, addresses, publishers' phone and fax numbers, e-mail and Web site addresses for over 270,000 journals, magazines, annuals, series, newspapers, and other periodicals published worldwide. Identifies special features, such as: the presence of reviews or indexes; whether a journal is refereed; and which indexing/abstracting services cover the periodical. (Includes reviews)

Funded by Florida Virtual Campus.

Consult a disciplinary index to review publications vetted by societies or other organizations. Many of these indexes also allow you to find research and publishing venues based on citations, references or funding.

AGRICOLA (Open Access)
Subjects: Agriculture research resource produced by the U.S. National Agriculture Library. International coverage.

Evaluation criteria includes subject scope of the journal’s content and overall quality of the journal. All journals must be peer-reviewed.

EconLit
Contains citations, with abstracts, to articles from more than 400 economics journals. In addition, subject indexing and abstracts of books and subject indexing of dissertation titles are included. Corresponding printed sources are: Journal of Economic Literature, Index of Economic Articles, and Cambridge University Press Abstracts of Working Papers in Economics.
Funded by Florida Virtual Campus.

ERIC (Open Access)
Subjects: Education

Includes both peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed materials. Journal sources may also be subject to a review of editorial and publisher policies and processes. See ERIC Selection Policy.

MLA International Bibliography
Provides a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations . The indexed materials coverage is international. Subjects consist of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Listings on rhetoric and composition and the history, theory and practice of teaching language and literature are also included.

Funded by statewide allocation.
MathSciNet (AMS)
A database of reviews, abstracts and bibliographic information for much of the mathematical sciences literature; continuing in the tradition of the paper publication, Mathematical Reviews, first published in 1940.

To access MathSciNet through EBSCOhost, click here
PsycInfo (APA)
PsycINFO Indexes international literature in psychology and related disciplines. Also see PsycNET.

Funded by Florida Virtual Campus.
PubMed/MEDLINE
PubMed comprises over 20 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences. PubMed also provides access to additional relevant web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources.
Web of Science
Three unique citation databases which allow searching cited references as well as traditional searches independently or in combination: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index.

Publishers and other organizations have developed new services that assist authors in targeting or narrowing down a group of appropriate journals for publication. These services use different search engines and vary according to the size and scope of their source databases.

JANE: Journal/Author Name Estimator
JANE suggests journals to publish biomedical research in by comparing title and abstract keywords to the MEDLINE database.
JournalGuide Paper Match
Find the best journal for your paper in any field, then select up to 3 journals to compare side-by-side on key factors like impact, publication speed, cost, and open access options.
SPI-Hub (Vanderbilt University Medical Center)
Enter your research keywords into this search engine to locate journals that publish on your topic. The search may also include bibliometrics for some of the journals.

Publisher Tools

Elsevier Journal Finder
Springer Nature Journal Suggester
Searches all Springer and BioMed Central journals to find most suitable journal for your manuscripts and compares relevant journals.
IEEE Publication Recommender
Search IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) periodicals and conferences, compare Impact Factor and submission-to-publication time, and get all key data about IEEE publications.
Manuscript Matcher (Clarivate Analytics)
A tool available through Web of Science Master Journal List and EndNote citation management software. See the link on this page to set up a Manuscript Matcher account.

The journal author pages provide information regarding its aims and scope and its submission process. See these links to some of the major scholarly publishers.

Cambridge University Press services for Authors
Elsevier for Authors
Emerald Publishing: For Authors
IEEE Author Center
IOP Publishing: Publishing Support
Nature for Authors
Nature Portfolio - Authors
Did your manuscript not get accepted in Nature? Consider other journals for specific disciplines included in Nature Portfolio.
Oxford University Press: Author Resources
PLOS One: Getting Started
Peter Lang: For Authors
Sage Publishing: Journal Author Gateway
Springer: Information for Journal Article Authors
Taylor & Francis Author Services (Journals)
An online guide targeting authors who want to find a journal and submit a manuscript. This guide also describes the process of peer-review and production into publication.
Taylor & Francis: Publish Your Book
Thieme Authors & Reviewers
Publishers in Medicine and Health Sciences.
Wiley Authors: Publish Your Journal Article or Book

Open Access Publishing Agreements with FAU

Transformative agreements between commercial, scholarly publishers and academic entities are increasing. These agreements can also be known as read and publish agreements, publish and read agreements, or similar terms.

When an author is affiliated with an institution or system with a transformative agreement, the cost of publishing their work in a publisher's open access journals may be waived or reduced.

Current Agreements for FAU Affiliates.

FAU faculty, students, and staff can use any of the following open access agreements with the following publishers.

For questions about FAU's transformative agreements, contact scholarlycomm@fau.edu.

Cambridge University Press - Read and Publish Agreement with SUS
The State University System of Florida has made an agreement with Cambridge University Press to support Open Access publishing. Affiliates with SUS can publish their articles Open Access - at no cost to them - in Cambridge University Press's select gold and hybrid journals.
Elsevier APC Reduction Agreement (University of Florida / SUS)
Elsevier offers a 15% discount on APCs for articles accepted to its select journals. The reduction is initiated during Elsevier's post acceptance processes. Starting January 1, 2024, this APC reduction agreement expanded from University of Florida to all institutions in the State University System of Florida.
IOP Publishing - Journal Finder
IOP Publishing has over 90 journals where its APCs have been waived through its transformative agreement with FAU. See its Journal Finder to identify titles.
Royal Society of Chemistry: Read and Publish Agreement
This agreement allows FAU affiliates to submit their manuscripts to RSC hybrid journals and have them openly available via Open Access. The article processing charge is waived, and your accepted manuscript will be available to read without a subscription.
Microbiology (Microbiology Society)
This publish and read agreement will cover the OA publishing costs for FAU researchers in all 6 Mircrobiology Society journals, including its Microbiology (formerly known as Journal of General Microbiology).
SCOAP 3
FAU is a member of SCOAP3, Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics, a partnership of libraries, funding agencies and research centers in 44 countries. SCOAP3 has converted key high-energy physics journals to Open Access and affiliated authors can publish in them without cost. See its current journals list that includes those published by Springer, APS, Elsevier, IOP Publishing, and more.
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In this unique model, SCOAP3 centrally pays the publishers for costs involved in open access publishing, and in return the publishers reduce the subscription fees of their customers.

Waive or Negotiate Open Access Fees

Most open access journals do not have APC or other fees, but if they do:

Request or inquire on a waiver from the publisher. They may make exceptions for early-career researchers or those within certain categories.
Grant-funded research. If your manuscript was funded by a grant, check your grant's rules to see if it allows funds to be used for publication fees.
Check with co-authors who are from other institutions. Your co-author can may be able to use transformative agreements or funding that are available at their institution.
Inquire about a reviewer discount. If you or a co-author is a reviewer for a publication, see if they have discounts or waivers for APCs. Some publishers like IOPScience offer this.
See professional society membership benefits. Some benefits may include waiving or providing reduced APCs.
Consult with your department. Some may have funding or agreements with publishers to cover APCs.

Last updated on May 7, 2025 2:23 PM