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ERA: Identifying quality journals. Where should I publish?

Quality journals are usually peer reviewed or refereed. These terms are often used interchangeably. Articles in peer reviewed journals have been evaluated by an independent expert, or experts in the field, before being accepted for publication. Examples of articles that often undergo review are: original research, critical scholarly texts and reviews of a field of research.

How to identify peer reviewed journals

• Search Ulrich’s international periodical directory.
• Look at the editorial policy of the journal e.g. Australian Humanities Review
• Consult the DEST Register of Refereed Journals   (This register is no longer updated. The most recent version was produced in January 2006)
• Look for a title on the ISI Master Journal List. All journals indexed by ISI are peer reviewed.
• Many online databases allow you to restrict your searching to peer reviewed journals.
• Search the Journal Quality List  Compiled and edited by Dr. Anne-Wil Harzing at the University of Melbourne. It lists academic journals in the following broad areas: Economics, Finance, Accounting, Management, and Marketing
• Search the Washington & Lee Law School list of Law Journals: Submissions and Ranking for refereed titles.

Using the Web of Science to determine key research journals

The Web of Science Analyse tool allows you to rank prominent journals, subjects, authors etc.

1. Go to the ISI Web of Knowledge database
2. From the ISI Web of Knowledge page select Web of Science
3. Select the General Search option. Do a search on a topic or keyword and click on the Submit button.
4. On the right hand side of the results screen you will see an Analyze Results option.
   Click on the Analyze button.
5. From the Rank the records by: option select Source title.
6. This allows you to sort and analyse the results of your search.

Using Scopus to determine key research journals

1. Go to the Scopus database
2. Select the Basic Search option. Do a search on a topic or keyword and click on the Search button.
3. From the results page you will see the heading Refine Results. Under this appears a list of the key journals in that field, sorted by the number of articles in each journal title.

Using the National Citation Report to determine key research journals

1. Go to the National Citation Report database (To obtain a copy of the National Citation Report CD-ROM please see your Subject Librarian )
2. From the main table highlight Summary by Journals.
3. If you want to limit your search further, click on the Restrict Search button. This allows you to restrict your search by year, keyword, country, field etc.
4. Click on Run Analysis.
5. The resulting summary table will list the total number of citations; names of journals, total number of papers; and the average cites per paper.
6. Click on the Sort Options drop down menu (from the database tool bar) to sort results by citations, journals, total papers, and average citations per paper.
7. Double click on any cell in the Cites column to view a graph displaying the total number of citations received that year for that item.