Why Publish?

There are many reasons to publish including for promotion and tenure, grant requirements, and academic recognition, but publishing also allows you to contribute to scholarly discourse. Publication in scholarly and professional fields is a discursive practice in which ideas are disseminated, studied, debated, and weighed against other ideas. (ACRL, 2015.)

Scholarly publishing:

• describes the research
• evaluates its reliability and reproducibility
• disseminates it through multiple channels
• preserves what has been done for future use. Further inquiry and subsequent knowledge is created from this system, which results in additional communication among scholars.

Things to Consider before Publishing

When you are searching for a place to publish your scholarly research there are several important factors to consider first. 

• Audience: Who do you want to read your work? A scholarly or general audience? What discipline or disciplines?
• Accessibility: Who can access the work? Only those with subscriptions or institutional affiliations? Those with disabilities?
• Format: Does print or electronic publication work better for your audience? Does the work require visual or audio components? Does the format affect the accessibility of the work?
• Indexing: Is the journal or other publication widely indexed in major indexing and abstracting databases? Is it available in full-text or abstract-only databases?
• Acceptance Rates: What percentage of submitted articles/book proposals are accepted? Do you need a highly selective journal or publisher for the current work? Would a less selective journal that reaches your target audience be a better choice?
• Turnaround Time: What is the average turnaournd times between submission and decision or between decision and publication? how many reviewers or review stages are there? how long are you able/willing to wait for publication?
• Publication Fees: Are you prepared to pay a reasonable fee (sometimes called a "article processing charge" or APC) for publication or broader access? Is this common in your discipline? Can it be subsidized? 
• Publication Agreements & Author's Rights: Who controls access and copyright to your published work? Can you distribute or re-use it independently of your publisher? Can other scholars do the same? Will it be preserved by your publisher, your institutional repository, or some other disciplinary repository?
• Level of Risk: Given your current career stage and goals, how much risk are you willing to assume? Are traditional metrics necessary for your promotion or review process? Can you afford a longer turnaround time, an innovative format, a newer or more-focused niche journal, or an open access publication? How open is your discipline or department to innovative form of scholarship and publication?

Where to Publish?

These are tools that can help you determine what journal you might publish an article in.

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• Cabell's Directories is a library database that allows you to compare over 11,000 academic journals. It is a source for journals information, submission details, and evaluation metrics. It also has a feature which identifies possible Predatory Journals.
   
• Clarivate Master Journal List identifies journals across several indices hosted on Web of Science. With a free account you can use a "Match Manuscript" feature which allows you to enter your article title and abstract to search for related journals.
   
• Cofactor Journal Selector allows you to identify a journal in which to publish based on subject, peer review, open access, speed of review and other factors. It is heavily slanted towards biology and medicine.
   
• Journal/Article Name Estimator (JANE) allows you to enter your article title or abstract and JANE will provide a list of journals that may be appropriate for your submission. JANE compares documents against PubMed's index. 
   
• Journal Citation Reports provides you with transparent, publisher-neutral data and statistics needed to make scholarly publishing decisions. Included in the library database Web of Science it quickly shows a journal's role within and influence upon the global research community by exploring a rich array of citations metrics, including the Journal Impact Factor (JIF).
   
• SPI-HUB or The Scholarly Publishing Information Hub was created by The Center for Knowledge Management at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as tool to support prospective authors with journal identification and evaluation. It is freely available and facilitates journal discovery by journal, topic, and author search.

What About Academic Presses?

How do you choose a book publisher? Your best tool is going to be peers, colleagues, and academic advisors familiar with publishing in your discipline. They will be most knowledgeable about the logistics, publishing terms, marketing efforts, and prestige of particular presses.  You can also consult various press's websites and publication catalogs to determine their goals, audiences, and interests. 

The American Association of University Presses (AAUP) has two tools that can be helpful: 

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The list of member university presses provides a directory, website, and available social media information for more than a 150 members. There is also an annual print edition with a guide to presses publishing in various subject areas, editorial profiles, and contact information for publishing staff. 

AAUP also publishes a Subject Area Grid which indicates subject areas in which member presses have a strong interest. 

You can also search the library database WorldCat to see who's publishing in your discipline. Then you can review their website for publishing and submission information.

The information on this page is derived from the following sources: (links open in a new window)
"Scholarly Publishing" by Sara Hoover, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, George Washington University, is licensed  CC BY-NC 4.0.
"Scholarly Publishing" by University of Texas Arlington Libraries is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
"Evaluating Publishers" by University of California Berkeley Library, Scholarly Communications Services is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
"Scholarly Communication Toolkit" by ACRL and is licensed CC BY-NC-SA.