LibGuides: Measure Your Research Impact: Where to Publish

Learn More About Open Access

Open Access and Scholarly Communications
This guide from the UNC-CH Health Sciences Library provides details on open access publishing options and addresses misconceptions about open access.
Open Access Overview (Peter Suber)
Overview of open access written by the director of the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication.
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
Click on the issues and resources tabs to learn more about open access.

Carolina Digital Repository
Long-term storage and access for scholarly works, datasets, research materials and records produced by the UNC-CH community.
Broadening Your Impact
Guide from Cornell University Library provides suggestions for alternative forms of publishing and connecting with the research community.

Call the HSL at (919) 962-0800 to get immediate help (during library hours).

E-Mail us and the best suited librarian will get back to you promptly (quick answers or one-on-one consultations).

Chat with a HSL Librarian to get help (during business hours).

Where you publish can be as important as what you publish.

Consider the following when selecting a journal to which to submit your article:

Relevance: The journal should publish research that is relevant to your work, the type of article that you want to publish, and reach the audience that you want to read your work. For interdisciplinary research, finding a relevant journal may mean looking beyond the journals in your field.
Discoverability: The journal should be indexed by major citation and abstract databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus.
Quality: Where does the journal ranked according to impact factor and other measures of journal quality? Who is on the editorial board of the journal?
Public Access: Does your article need to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy?
Open Access: Do you wish to publish in an open access journal, which will make the full text of your work freely available online at the time of publication?

Consider the following when searching for and selecting a journal:

Is the journal peer-reviewed?
Is the journal relevant to your research? Check your references to see what journals they were published in.
Does the journal publish the type of article that you wish to submit?
Does the journal reach the audience that you want to read your research?
Where is the journal indexed? This information can often be found on the journal's website, or check Ulrichsweb (see below).
Do you wish to publish in an open access journal?
Does the journal have an article processing charge (APC)? Many open access journals have an APC.

Ulrichs Web Online
Online database with detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals. Use to check if journal is peer-reviewed and in what databases journal is indexed. Click on Advanced Search to search by subject.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies by periodical
Scopus
Citation database that allows you to search source titles (journals) by subject. To search source titles, click on the Sources link in the menu bar along the top of the Scopus homepage.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Jane (Journal/Author Name Estimator)
Directory of Open Access Journals
Database of open access scientific and scholarly journals. Search for a specific journal title or browse by subject.

Consider the following when evaluating the quality of a journal:

Where is the journal ranked according to Impact Factor, Eigenfactor and SCImago Journal Ranking?
Who is on the editorial board of the journal?
If the journal is open access, then who is the publisher?

Journal Impact
Journal Impact page in this guide, which compares and tells you how to find, journal Impact Factor, Eigenfactor and SCImago Journal Ranking.
Google Scholar Top Publications List
List of the top 100 publications according to the h5-index, the h-index for articles published in the last 5 years. Top 20 lists available for several disciplines.
Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
If you are considering publishing in an open access journal, then the publisher of the journal should be on the OASPA membership list.
Beall's List of Predatory Publishers
List of potential, possible or probable predatory scholarly open access publishers. If you are considering publishing in an open access journal, then the publisher of that journal should NOT be on this list.