Library Research Guide for Faculty Publishing: A Guide for Publishing, Tenure Review, and Promotion
Professors may want to investigate the following three areas with regard to their own scholarly publications:
- Acceptance rates of the journals in which they published
- Cited References to their publications
- Impact Factor and Immediacy Factor applicable to the journal in which they published
1. Acceptance Rates
Journal acceptance rates can yield important statistical information about the selectivity of a journal.
In addition to the sources listed below, some good places to check for journal acceptance rates can be:
- The journal itself to see if the acceptance rates are published.
- The website of the journal to see if this information is posted online.
- The journal publisher.
- The Serials Directory lists the contact information for various serial publications as does the print Ulrich's Periodical Directory (located at the Library Reference Desk, Ref. Z6941 .U5).
- Articles that may have been written on the quality of journals in a particular discipline.
- If you search through a periodical index that is key in your discipline, for example PsycINFO for psychology or CINAHL with Full Text for nursing, you may find articles written on the quality of journals.
Writers Market (Ref. PN161 .W83 20101) contains some useful data on acceptance rates for book publishers, small presses, and consumer and trade magazine publishers.
The resources listed below contain information on acceptance rates for scholarly journals.
Business & Economics
Cabell's Journal Directories
Library DatabaseEuropean Economic Association, rankings of academic journals in Economics
Education
Cabell's Journal Directories
Library DatabaseHensen, K. (1997). "Writing for publication," Phi Delta Kappan, 78(10), 781-784.
Literature
MLA Directory of Periodicals
Library Database
Nursing and Allied Health
An Author's Guide to Nursing Journals
Ref. RT24 .A98 1998Writer's Guide to Nursing Periodicals
Ref. RT24 .D35 2000
Psychology
Cabell's Journal Directories
Library DatabaseJournals in Psychology: A Resource Listing for Authors
Ref. BF 76.8 J68 1997
2. Cited References
Cited References count how many times a given work has been cited by others as a measure of quality. The resources listed below contain information on cited reference counts. As different sources index different titles, it is best to check all of the applicable sources and remove duplicate cited references for an accurate count.
Multidisciplinary
Google Scholar
Contents strongest in: Astronomy, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Environment & Ecology, Finance, Math, Medicine, Nursing, Physics, Sociology.
** Specify Fairfield University (via Scholar Preferences) for enhanced access to our library resources.Web of Science
Library Database
Multidisciplinary. Contents compare to the print publications: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index, and Social Sciences Citation Index.
Nursing
CINAHL with Full Text
Library Database
Psychology
PsycINFO
Library Database
3. Impact Factor and Immediacy Factor
The Impact factor is the ratio equal to the number of cites to recent articles divided by the number of recent articles, where recent may refer to the past couple of years. The Immediacy Factor is the ratio equal to the number of cites to current articles divided by the number of current articles, where current may refer to past year.
Journal Citation Reports
Library Database
Impact factors for select science, technology, and social science journals.
More information: http://scientific.thomson.com/tutorials/jcr4/
incites
incites provides a behind-the-scenes look at the scientists, journals, institutions, nations, and papers selected by the ISI Essential Science Indicators (ESI) Web product.
See http://www.in-cites.com/research/ for the SCI and Web of Science "top journals" in various areas.