How to publish in the Health Sciences

Locate journals

When considering journals for publication you should create a list of potential titles by locating journals most relevant to your work.

• Start with titles that you are familiar with and checking the journals that you cite in your research
• Browse journals in a relevant database by subject
• Look through Ulrich's Periodical Directory, which indexes journals by subject
• Ask your supervisor or faculty for recommendations
• Try using AI tools

Assess compatibility with aim and scope

Narrow down your list of journals by determining their aim, scope, target audience, and type of publishing. The aim and scope are the most important set of criteria that publishers follow for accept articles. Consequently, your piece must align with these factors in order to be considered for publication. You should also verify whether that the journal publishes open access articles.

• Journals have an explicit statement about their aim and scope (look for an 'About' page). The aim and scope indicates the why, what, and who of the journal: why the journal exists, what types of articles it publishes (reflections, case studies, trials, reviews, etc.), and who its target audience is. 
• Ideally, check that the journal hasn't published a similar article to yours in the last two years to make sure your work is considered original.
• There may be different journals better suited for the type of research you do (e.g. clinical or applied research).
• If you have a funding mandate to publish in open access, make sure the journal offers open access options. Additionally, publishing in open access can also increase your work's exposure.

Check credibility and impact 

Ensuring the credibility of a journal is an important step to safeguarding your reputation as an author, and is an especially important measure against predatory publishers if you are publishing in open access.

• High quality journals will always peer review articles.
  • Look in the aim and scope, or find a publication or author page for information on the peer review process.
  • In Ulrich's Periodical Directory, the referee jersey icon means that a journal is refereed, another term for peer-reviewed.
  • If you are searching for journals in a database, you can often filter results to include only peer-reviewed journals.
• Another way to check for credibility and significance is an impact score metric, such as CiteScore. 
  • Using Scopus data, the CiteScore uses average article citation frequency over a three-year period to indicate performance and the importance of a particular journal in its field. You can find these on Scopus by selecting to search within 'Source Title', enter the journal title, and then clicking on the journal title in the results page. Once you are on the 'Source Details' page, you can also compare the CiteScore of up to ten journals at a time, by going to 'Compare Sources' near the top right of the display.

Questions to ask yourself

• Does the journal publish articles in my field?
• Is my work relevant or useful to the readers of the journal?
• Is my work in alignment with the purpose or aim of the journal?
• Does the journal publish my type of work (opinion piece, case study, trial, review, applied research, clinical research)?
• Does the journal publish open access articles?
• Does the journal peer review articles?
• What is the journal's impact score?
• Is my work original to the journal or has the journal published similar work in the last two years?

Content adapted from:

• University of Wollongong LibGuide, "Journal Selection Strategies"
• BioMed Central, "Find the Right Journal"

Edanz Journal Selector

• Compares your abstract text to thousands of journals and retrieves relevant titles (free).

Elsevier Journal Finder

• Compares your abstract to journals indexed in Scopus (free).

EndNote Manuscript Matcher

• Compares Web of Science data against your title, abstract and references (subscription required).  

JANE (Journal Author Name Estimator)

• Compares PubMed data against your title or abstract (free).

Taylor & Francis Journal Suggester Beta

• Compares your abstract or keywords to journals published by Taylor & Francis (free).

Wiley JournalFinder Beta

• Compares your title and abstract to journals published by Wiley (free).

There may be additional considerations to make when selecting a journal that will depend on your funding. If you received funding from a Tri-Agency grant for your research, you must publish your work according to the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy, which requires that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication. Making your work freely accessible can either be done through publishing in an open access journal or depositing your final, peer-reviewed manuscript in an institutional or disciplinary repository (such as MSpace).

APCs vary depending on the journal, but typically range from hundreds to several thousands of dollars. Many publishers offer discounted or waived fees to universities and other large institutions based on their library subscription contracts, so it's always best to check if these apply to a journal you are interested in submitting to.

While the open access movement has improved equality in the access of information, it has also given rise to predatory publishers. Because authors must pay fees to publish their work in open access, predatory publishers take advantage of authors to generate profit. Predatory publishers are also associated with poor quality journals with little to no peer review and very low rejection rates.

Learn more about predatory publishers and steps to take to avoid them with the University of Manitoba predatory publisher resources.