Publishing in the Life Sciences

When authors take on the task of writing up their research for publication, it is good practice to prepare the report in a format that resembles most closely the final submission. In order to prepare, it helps if researchers pre-select the publication (in the life sciences, usually a peer-reviewed journal) to which they intend to submit.

Which journals may publish your article?

• Ask colleagues for advice about which journal to publish in
• Look at the references in your article
  • Which journal(s) appear?
  • Which journals appear in your references' references?
• Search your research topic in a database in your field (e.g., MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, BIOSIS, PsycINFO, Web of Science Core Collection).
  • Browse the results and see which publications tend to publish on your topic
• Search for you research topic in Scopus or Web of Science Core Collection
  • Once you have run your search, in the column on the left: Use the "Source Title" (Scopus) or "Publication title" (Web of Science) limit/filter to see which journals have published the most articles on the topics related to your search and research
• Check the Instructions to Authors pages of the journals that interest you
  • You may also wish to email the journal to find out if the subject fits in the publication's scope, or in a particular theme issue.
  • Note: Author guidelines will also include important information like citation style, inclusion of data sets, etc.
• Consider the intended audience of the journal
  • e.g., If the journal only publishes medical articles of general interest on research on humans, they may not consider your manuscript on translational regulation of release factor 2, no matter how good it is

Check for quality

• What is the quality of the articles published in the journal? Read a few of the journal's published articles.
• Is it a scholarly/research journal or a trade publication?
• Does it have a peer review process?
  • If so, is it open, blind or double-blind? (Peer reviewed publications are important for promotion in many academic disciplines).
• Determine the popularity and prestige of the journal, using impact measures such as the InCites Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Impact Factor. Double-check impact factors that are posted on journal websites: These may not use JCR data, and IFs not published by JCR may be less meaningful to the academic community. See other metrics such as Eigenfactor, and CiteScore.  See this guide to learn more about impact factors and metrics.
• Useful Checklist for Review of Journal Quality: Blobaum, Paul M., "Blobaum’s Checklist for Review of Journal Quality for Submission of Scholarly Manuscripts" (2013). Faculty Research and Creative Activity. 27.

Check for legitimacy

• Check our web page on finding llegitimate journals to figure out if you can trust a particular journal; keep in mind that information on illegitimate journal websites may be false (e.g., editorial board members, impact factor)
  • Do not conflate open access with illegitimacy
  • Note that author fees in and of themselves do not = illegitimate. There are many publishing models within open access. Learn more about open access.
• Is the journal indexed in the databases you use to search for literature in your subject area (e.g., MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, BIOSIS, PsycINFO, Web of Science Core Collection)? You can use a directory like Ulrichsweb to find abstracting and indexing information on individual journal titles, but double-check within the database itself.
• Is the journal publisher a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) if it's an open access publication)?
• View this guide by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries: How to Assess a Journal

Consider open access

• Is the journal open access, or does it allow authors to post acceptable versions in an institutional repository such as eScholarship@McGill? Many grants will require that your research output be made free to read within a certain amount of time

Consider publishing or preregistering your study protocol

• BioMedCentral journals such as Trials may offer this option, as well as other journals like BMJ Open. Some PLoS journals now also offer preregistration. If you are trying to find journals that accept protocols, try doing a search on your topic and adding "protocol" (or "study protocol" OR "trial protocol", for example) as a title word search in your search strategy, just to get a quick sense of where protocols related to your topic (and maybe to your study design) are published.
• Systematic reviews, rapid reviews, and umbrella reviews with health-related outcomes can be registered at PROSPERO, and for those undertaking reviews for collaborations like Cochrane, for example, protocol publication may be mandatory.
• You can use platforms like OSF Registries to "publish" protocols or study preregistrations as well. 

Is the timing right?

• The publication's lag time is the time it takes once a manuscript is accepted for it to be published. This can range from immediately (in the case of some online open access publishers) to more than a year.
• The lag time for review is also of importance. If it is not stated in the author guidelines, ask the editor how long it usually takes for a submission to be reviewed. Note that it is considered inappropriate to submit a manuscript to more than one journal at a time.
• Use caution: An extremely short review time may be a red flag indicating that the peer review process is nonexistent or superficial.

• Find APC Discounts and Waivers: See the SCIFREE search tool for McGill discounts
• DOAJ - Search for articles related to your topic and view the results by journal in the left-hand column; you can also perform searches for journals without fees
• GAJET: Good Academic Journal in Ethical terms - Promotes journals that do not engage in "predatory" or abusive commercial practices
• Jot: Journal Targeter - Find journals matching your title, abstract, and references [See review in JMLA]
• Genamics JournalSeek - A categorized database of over 75000 journal titles with basic information
• JANE: Jounal/Author Name Estimator - Insert your title and/or abstract and the system suggests journal titles suitable for your topic
• JournalGuide - Search, filter, compare, and sort journals
• Elsevier Journal Finder - Insert your title, abstract, and field(s) of research and the system suggests journal titles suitable for your topic; information provided includes impact factor, open access status, editorial times, acceptance rates, and production times. Limited to journals published by Elsevier
• List of Journals Currently Indexed for MEDLINE  (U.S. National Library of Medicine) - This list is generated from the NLM Catalog. Inclusion in MEDLINE can be used as an indicator of journal quality (Note: Journals may be included in PubMed but not indexed in MEDLINE). 
• Open Policy Finder - Formerly known as Sherpa; maintained by JISC