There are steps you can take to ensure you select a high-quality journal that aligns with your scholarly goals.

Considerations

1. Readership: What is the intended audience of the journal?
2. Scope: What is the focus and scope of the journal?
3. Article Type: Does the journal publish the kind of publication you intend to write? (i.e. journal article, book review, review, letter etc.)
4. Quality:
   1. Confirm that the journal is peer-reviewed
   2. Examine the list of editors for names you recognize in your field
   3. Avoid "predatory" journals by consulting our guide below
   4. Consult Journal Citation Reports to find out the impact factor and rank
5. Citation: Examine the journals that publish the articles you are using as background information. Is the journal being cited by other researchers in the field?
6. Timeliness: Try to find out how much time the journal's typical timeline from submission to first decision. Some journals, such as those published by Elsevier, provide this information on the "About" page of their website.
7. Indexing: Is the journal indexed in PubMed/Ovid MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL or other reputable literature database?
8. Cost: Does the journal charge for publishing? Check the instructions for authors or the journal submission agreement. Charges can include submission fees, page fees, and/or open access fees.
9. Open Access: Is the journal content open access? If so, does it charge a fee? Consult our guide on open access for more information

Journal Selection Tools

Even after considering the above characteristics, choosing a journal can be difficult. Below are some tools that can help. Most allow you to copy and paste keywords or your entire abstract and then suggest journals with similar publications.

It may also be helpful to do a PubMed search on your keywords, then sort your results by Journal (click on Display options then Sort by Journal). You may want to limit your results by Year as well (from the menu on the left) to see what journals have been publishing lately on your topic.

• Anne O'Tate (perform your search and then click Journals from the left menu)
• Clarivate Manuscript Match
• Edantz Journal Selector (works best with a sentence or full abstract; must register for more features)
• Elsevier Journal Finder (specific to Elsevier journals)
• Journal/Author Name Estimator (JANE)
• jot (open source)

Case Reports

• List of Medical Journals that accept Case Reports (2023 librarian-compiled list, with specialties)
• UVA Fellowship Code for BMJ Case Reports

Defining "Predatory"

"Predatory journals" is a term popularized in the 2000s, referring to low-quality open access journals that employed deceptive or fraudulent practices to drive revenue from authors' fees. Many raised objections to the broadness of this term and a more nuanced understanding of the spectrum of predatory behaviors is warranted. The chart below illustrates the differences between journals which pursue deceptive practices and those which merely have some low quality features.

Image credit: This work is copyright of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. The full report (in English) can be found at https://www.interacademies.org/publication/predatory-practices-report-English.

Tools for Evaluating Journals

Before you submit your article, there are steps you can take to ensure you select a high-quality journal and avoid predatory publishers:

• Check to see if the journal is indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed (use the filter "currently indexed in MEDLINE") or another reputable literature database such as Web of Science or CINAHL
• Use the criteria described in the blog post "Submitting to a journal commits you to it for six weeks to six months (or longer)- so choose your journal carefully"

Find reputable journals in one or more of the following lists and directories:      

• The Web of Science Journal Citation Reports (UVA only) - A multidisciplinary index to journals with impact factors. Resource for journal evaluation, using citation data drawn from over 11,000 indexed journals in nearly 250 disciplines. Coverage is both multidisciplinary and international and incorporates journals from over 3,000 publishers in 81 countries/regions.
• The Ulrich’s Web Global Serials Directory - Bibliographic and access information about serials published throughout the world, covering all subjects. Can be limited to peer-reviewed journals (open access or subscription–based). To determine if a publication is peer-reviewed, utilize the library's subscription to Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory. Search the journal by name, then look for the "refereed" symbol next to the name to indicate it is refereed, aka peer reviewed.
• The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - An online directory that indexes high quality, peer-reviewed Open Access research journals, periodicals, and their articles' metadata. DOAJ's Seal of Approval is awarded to journals that achieve a high level of openness, adhere to Best Practice, and high publishing standards.

Other Resources

• Think. Check. Submit. offers a checklist for researchers to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher
• Think. Check. Attend. guides researchers and scholars when choosing a trusted conference to attend and present their research
• OASPA Principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publication
• Cabells Predatory Report Criteria v 1.1 -  criteria for identifying deceptive, fraudulent, and/or predatory journals for inclusion in Cabell’s Blacklist. While we do not have access to these lists, reviewing the criteria can be helpful in your own determination of whether a journal is questionable.
• Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker is a list of malicious websites which are attempting to mimic reputable journals. If a URL seems suspicious, this is a good place to check.

Further Reading:

• Crotty, D. (2018). Revisiting Six Years of Predatory Publishing. Blog post, The Scholarly Kitchen. 
• InterAcademy Partnership. (2022). Combatting predatory academic journals and conferences [Summary report].
• Laine C, Winker MA. (2017). Identifying Predatory or Pseudo-Journals. World Association of Medical Editors.
• Linacre, S. (2022). The predator effect: Understanding the past, present and future of deceptive academic journals. Against the Grain (Media), LLC.
• Shamseer, L., Moher, D., Maduekwe, O., Turner, L., Barbour, V., Burch, R., Shea, B. J. (2017). Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: can you tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. BMC Medicine, 15(1), 28.