This document discusses factors to consider when selecting a journal to publish an article. It begins by defining publication and its importance in research. It then covers different types of journals such as open access, subscription-based, and predatory journals. The main part of the document outlines key factors that affect journal selection, including journal characteristics, performance, acceptance rates, and manuscript characteristics. Journal characteristics include quality, indexing, peer review process, publisher reputation, and editorial board. Authors should also consider the journal's publication cycle, review timelines, and author resources. Finally, the likelihood of acceptance may depend on the author's affiliation and country, as well as ensuring the manuscript fits the aims and scope of the journal.

1. SEMINAR ON
Presented by : Mr. Nilesh H. Markad
M.Pharm SEM. III (Pharmaceutics)
Co-guided by: Mrs. S.B. Sandhan
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Pharmaceutics
MVP Samaj’s College of Pharmacy Nashik-
422002
Guided by: Prof.Dr. M.P. Wagh
Vice Principal & PG Head
Dept. of Pharmaceutics
HOWTO SELECT JOURNALTO PUBLISHARTICLE

2. C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
INTRODUCTION
TYPES OF JOURNALS
FACTORS AFFECTING CHOICE OF JOURNAL
STEPS TOWARDS CHOOSING RIGHT JOURNAL
CHECKLIST
USEFUL TOOLS IN JOURNAL TARGETING
SCOPUS
HOW PUBLICATIONS ARE AFFECTING OUR COLLEGE

3. INTRODUCTION
• The word publish defined as to make generally known or to disseminate to the
public”.
• Research that fails to reach others is of little value and a research project may be
considered complete if it is published, read, understood, and believed by others .
• There are over 80000 academic peer reviewed journals out of this 30000 are classified
under Medicine and health.
• From such a huge number of journals choosing the right one to submit a manuscript
is not easy
• Choosing the wrong journal may lead to fast rejection, delayed publication,and waste
of time
• Publishing in peer-reviewed high-quality journals is a gold standard method for
disseminating scientific work.
• Here, we discuss important factors that should be considered for choosing the right
journal to get your work published successfully like journal characteristics,publishing
models,tools to target journal.

4. TYPES OF JOURNALS
Open access journals
• Open access journals remove barriers of sharing scientific knowledge by allowing
digital content freely available/accessible to all readers.
• In open acess journals author have to pay charges(APC).
• Surveys indicate that scopus indexed OA journals approaching same scientific impact
and quality as subscription journals.
• Open access journals have some cons and pros like Author processing charges,low
impact factor,higher rate of predatory journals,low quality of peer review and pros
like no financial barriers for readers,short peer review,free access to scientific
works,new ideas.
Subscription based journals
• In the case of subscription journals, individuals or institutions have to pay
subscription charges to have access to the journal's content.
• Authors don’t need to pay any charges.

5. Predatory journals
• Is an exploitative academic publishing business model involves charging
publication fees to authors without checking articles quality.
• Phenomenon of predatory journls first noticed by Jaffrey Beall.
• Purposefully use names similar to well established journals.
How to spot predatory journals
• Website can make journal complete or real with editorial board but sometimes
people named in that journal even don’t know their name listed in journal
• Send spam mails
• Use fake metrics like scientific impact factor
• Falsely claims to be indexed in popular database like pubmed
• APC not clearly mentioned
How to skip/avoid predatory journals
• Check journal contact information
• Take look at peer review process
• DOAJ listed journals are not predatory so check on DOAJ
• List of predatory journals available on BEALLS LIST

6. Factors affecting choice of journal
Journal characterastics
 Scientific quality and prestige
• Indexing by established bibliographic databases
• Having peer-review process
• Citation-based metrics (e.g. impact factor,H index)
• Reputation of publisher
• Reputation of editorial board
 Journal’s performance
• Publication periodicity
• Timelines, quality and models of peer-review process
• Author-friendly options of journal
• Publication charge
• Ethics in publishing process

7.  Acceptance possibility
• Rate of acceptance
• Authors’ country and affiliations
• A well-known co-author
 Characteristics of the manuscript
 Authors Priorities and Limitations

8.  Journals quality and prestige
• The quality and prestige of the target journal is a critical factors affecting the authors’
choices.
• Publishing in prestigious journals has its rewards, including successful grant application
opportunities , quality signal in hiring, promotion and funding decisions.
• Indexing in the well-established databases, having peer-review, high-impact factor, well-
known editor and robust editorial board members considered as important quality
indicators .
 Indexed in High quality databases:
• Indexing High-quality and reputed journals are well-indexed and have widespread coverage
in thee stablished bibliographic databases; on the other hand, indexing by the major
citation databases makes the journal more visible.
• Authors want their research to be discoverable and read by others
• The most important international platforms for medical journals include PubMed,
MEDLINE, SCOPUS.
• Journals that are indexed in these databases have rigorous review or selection criteria.

9.  Peer review
• Peer reviewrs are external experts chosen by editors to provide written opinions
with the aim of improving study.
• It is divided into two types single blind and double blind peer review.
• Peer review is process subjecting authors work,research to scruitiny of others
who are expert in same field before paper published in journal.
• Peer revieved articles are said to be most reliable sources of information that
you can use.
• According to UGC if anyone wanted to become research supervisor he must
have atleast 5 publications in peer reviewed journals after obtaining Ph.D.
• According to UGC it is desirable that research work of Ph.D. scholars is
published in peer reviewed journals.

10. Source-https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/howscienceworks_16

11.  Reputation of publisher:
• Publishing by an established publisher or recognized professional society is one
of the most important quality indicators of a journal .
• Publication history of a journal with a reputable medical publisher (i.e. Elsevier, ,
Springer Nature, John Wiley andSons) may be considered as a quality indicator
for a scientific journal.
 Reputation of Editorial Board
• The prestige and standing of a journal depends on the reputation of the editor-in-
chief and its editorial board.
• Editorial board members should be known as established experts in the field
related to the aim and scope of the journal
• Contact information for editorial staff should also be available.
• The authors are advised to look at the list of the editorial board members to
evaluate their reputation and familiarity with the submitted work.

12. Journal’s Performance :
 Publication Periodicity
• Authors advised to consider journal’s publication years (i.e. number of volumes),
frequency of publication (e.g. annual, bimonthly, monthly), and the number of
articles published per year.
• The higher the number of issues published per year, may increase the chances of
publication of the submitted manuscript.
 Timelines of the Peer-Review Process
• Timelines of peer-review and publication process is one of the important criteria for
selecting a journal.
• Authors should check the average number of days it takes to receive the editorial
review process, the average time for external peer-review,and the average time
from acceptance to publication.
• Beyond the timely peer-review process and fast editorial decision, providing a fair,
high-quality and rigorous peer-review, is an important criteria for targeting a journal

13.  Author-Friendly Options of Journals
• Several factors including providing an online submission system, facilitated online
tracking system enabling authors to follow every stage of a manuscript’s process.
• Furthermore, providing online extensive guidance and templates for different types of
manuscripts, tables and figures, abbreviations, referencing styles are good options that
allow the authors to easily prepare their manuscript according to the journal’s style.
 Publication Charge
• It should noted that submission fees are non refundable and manuscript may rejected by
editors.
 Ethics in Publishing process
• The journal should provide a clear description of ethical principles; this should help the
authors during their submission process.
• Plagiarism, conflicts of interest, internal review board approval, informed consent,
human and animal subject research, confidentiality
• The journals should keep the manuscripts, associated material and information strictly
con‐fidential

14.  Acceptance Possibility
• Several factors needs to be considered by the authors; these include, journal’s
periodicity (numbers of published papers and issues per year), history of the journal in
publishing papers from authors’country and the acceptance/rejection rate .
• Being affiliated with a less prestigious institution, or submission from specific countries
may have negative impact on acceptance rate, especially for prestigious journals [1]
• In some cases, reviewers are more likely to accept manuscripts from famous authors
and high-ranked insti‐tutions [2]
 Rate of Acceptance
• The acceptance rate, defined as the percentage of formally submitted manuscripts that
are accepted and published, is an important factor influencing a journal’s choice.
• The acceptance rate of top quality journals is as low as ~5%.
• A limited number of journals openly display their acceptance rate e.g. Elsevier provides
the acceptance rate of their own journals

15.  The Characteristics of the Manuscript
• The manuscript needs to be relevant and fit within the “Aims and Scope” of the
journal.
• Irrelevant topic to the journal mission is most common reason for a fast
rejection in the field of science.
• Prior to submission,authors should carefully read the journal’s mission/vision
statement and be familiar with the topics and types of manuscripts published by
the journal
• Checking the guide for authors and looking at the latest list of published papers
in the target journal would help[3]
• The authors should be honest about the quality of their work ;they are
supposed to assess the work for its novelty, priority, soundness of the research
methods, impact.
• If the material is absolutely original, innovative, and contains out‐standing
methodology, the authors may think about high-ranking journals.

16.  Author’s Priorities and Limitations
• Keeping the balance with the desire to publish with a top-quality
prestigious journal and the need for rapid publication is a key factor
for successful publishing
• For example, a Masters student seeking an academic position by a
particular date, is most likely to consider a rapid publication rather
than IF or a specific target audience.
• Authors also need to follow their institutional policies and
regulations outlined by the funding agencies

17. Steps Toward Choosing the Right Journal

18. Checklist

19.  Journal finder
• Elsevier journal finder (https://journalfinder.elsevier.com/
• Springer Journal Suggester (https://journalsuggester.springer.com/)
 Journals databases
• NLM catalog (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog?term=currentlyindexed)
• Web of Science Master Journal List (https://mjl.clarivate.com/home)
• Elsevier journal list(https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/content/journal-title-
lists)
 List of indexed, high-quality, and peer-reviewed OA journals
• DOAJ (http://doaj.org)
 Journals’ ranking databases
• SCImago (https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php)
Useful Links/Tools for Journal Targeting

20. Scopus https://www.scopus.com/
• Scopus is bibliographic database containing abstract and citations for
academic journal articles.
• Scopus covers nearly 22000 titles from over 5000 publishers of which 20000
are peer reviewed journals in scientific ,technical,medical disciplines.
• Scopus is owned by Elsevier and is available online by subscription
• Scopus indexed journals are considered to be higher scientific quality as
compared to others
• It also increases chances of getting cited which increases your citation score.
• Scopus data is highly accepted for ranking organisations.

21. How publications are affecting our college?
 NIRF ranking nirf
 NIRF counts only those papers which are published in SCOPUS,Web of Science,Pubmed
indexed journals of last 3 years.
 In QP number of citation of institute are counted.

22.  Conclusion
• Choosing the right journal for a manuscript is a crucial decision affecting
not only the pre-publication process but also the post-publication success
of the author.
• Publishing in journals that are not reputable can diminish the credibility of
your research, limit your ca‐reer.
• Transparency from the journal as to its aim and scope,the editorial board,
indexing status, the peer review process, reputation, and policies for
authors are the key indicators of quality journals.
• Journal’s characteristics, intrinsic value of the manuscript, and authors’
priorities and limitations are the most important factors that need to be
considered for journal targeting.

23.  References
1. McGillivray B, De Ranieri E. Uptake and outcome of manuscripts in Nature journals by review
model and author characteristics.Res Integr Peer Rev. 2018;3:5. doi: 10.1186/s41073-018-
0049-z. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6097313/
2. Tomkins A, Zhang M, Heavlin WD. Reviewer bias in single- versus double-blind peer review.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.2017;114(48):12708–13. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1707323114. Reviewer
bias in single- versus double-blind peer review - PMC (nih.gov)
3. https://journals.lww.com/indjem/Pages/Information-for-Authors.aspx
4. Zahra Bahadoran,Pravin Mirmiran,Khosrow Kashfi Scientific Publishing in Biomedicine:
How to Choose a Journal? International journal of endocrinology and metabolism 2021 Jan;
19(1): e108417. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8010430/
5. https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/howscienceworks_16
6. https://www.scopus.com/
7. National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) (nirfindia.org)
8. https://journalfinder.elsevier.com/

24. What we can additionally do to improve
our college publications in SCOPUS/WOS
indexed journals?
• By creating college account on linkedin
• As linkedin is professional networking site ,is
great medium to reach out to potential
faculty or guest faculty to institution
• Is used to build connections in industry and
stay in touch with collagues
• By posting collage researchers have published
in reputable journals will boost confidence of
that researcher as well as it will motivate to
new researchers to publish their work in
reputable journals.
• Due to improper instrumentation in our
collage many hurdles come during research so
that must improved.