5 keys to compare scientific journals without effort

Selecting the scientific journal in which publish your research results is a long and time-consuming process. In fact, according to our data, almost 40% of researchers find that it is one of the main day-to-day problems. Using the market research results we obtained to create the CountryofPapers Journal Comparator, we bring you the 5 keys that will help you to find the most suitable journal where to publish your research.

1. Decide what do you need before beginning the search

¿Do you need to enhance your curriculum? ¿Do you have funding resources to pay a publication fee? ¿Are you in a hurry because you are going to apply for a position? You will have to answer all this questions before beginning your search to lay the foundations of the comparisons you are going to carry out after. Options are multiple and depend on the specific circumstances of each researcher. 

2. Define your keywords

Most of the widely used searchers are keyword based (Google, Youtube, Amazon). However, almost every journal searcher use Categories to separate and compare journals, which in our view is clearly not recommended. ¿Why? Because it is completely impossible to find specific groups that clearly separate journals by their Scope, producing overlaps that difficult the process. In fact, almost every researcher has asked himself in JCR: "¿In which category is included my research?".  For this reason, we encourage you to define your keywords and try a different version of search.

3. Use your bibliographic references!

It is probably the most obvious and efficient method to obtain a list of suitable journals where to publish. Select the journals locating your keywords in the journal titles and in the research articles you have used in your study. That journals will have the right scope and also the contacts to ensure that your article is reviewed by experts on the field. Using this technique you will have 15-20 suitable journals to compare.

4. Avoid Web to Web jumping

80% of researchers do this step wrong, so stay tuned. Now that we have the list it's time to compare. Take those specific parameters defined on section 1 and jump into the first journal page. Notate all the information BEFORE leaving the journals page . Do NOT JUMP into the next journal page before checking every variable (Open Access options, specific scope, Acceptance rate, Publication speed, Fees and Article Publication Charges).  It can be very boring but believe us, it is worth and you can use this data in future selections. Oh and good luck finding publication prices, you will need it.

5. Read opinions

This step is vital in other fields (like in TripAdvisor or Amazon) but is currently developing on scientific journals. As every service provider, there are high-quality and low-quality journals, and there is no better information provider than other researchers, so ask your teammates and read opinions in public platforms before making the final submission step.

If you use this keys you will find high-quality journals that fullfill your needs in half the time compared to an usual search. In Countryofpapers we want to make things even easier, so we built a free to use journal comparison platform that gathers all information that journals provide us in the most efficient way to ensure a fast and clear selection and comparison. We invite you to take a look and good luck with your publication!