PhD Journal Publication – Information Digest

Where the journal is indexed is a reflection of its quality standards! The common perception is that indexed journals are considered to be having higher scientific quality as compared to the non indexed journals.

For PhD scholars, it becomes difficult to decide the journal in which they wish to publish their research. Knowledge and awareness about indexing is important to be able to choose the right journal. Looking at your references can surely help to narrow down the choices. Before I explain you the concept of indexing, here are a few questions, answering them will help you to target the journal easily:

1. Is the chosen journal peer reviewed to the right level?
2. Who are the target audience of the journal?
3. How much time does the journal take for the review process?
4. What are the different impact metrics of the journal?
5. Are you interested or required to publish in open access?

Few terminologies that are important to know before you proceed for publication are:

1. Impact factor
2. Indexing

• Impact Factor: Impact factor is the average annual number of citations for each published article.
• Indexing: For the purpose of becoming popular as an authentic source of knowledge and information and to carve a niche amongst a large database of journals available in the market, journals need to find ways to increase their visibility, credibility, availability and also readership. The best way to achieve this is through getting the publications indexed by one or more leading databases. Indexing is very essential for the following reasons:

1. It helps the journal to become available to a wide audience
2. It adds on to the reputation of the journal of being a reliable source of high-quality information
3. Being indexed in a reputed database makes it easier for researchers to locate and identify good journals.

Once the journal is indexed by a database, it automatically becomes accessible to all other users in the database. Some of the databases index titles while some index full articles and some do it only with the abstract or synopsis. Some of the popular indexing services globally are:

• SCOPUS: This is managed by Elsevier publishing company and journals from the field of technology, medicine, management, arts, humanities and social sciences are indexed here. In addition, this database provides analysis and tracking tools too.
• SCIE: Science Citation Index Expanded is managed by Thompson Reuters. It covers journals from a wide range of scientific and Technical fields. Like Scopus, it also offers data analysis options.
• BIOSIS: This indexing is specific to biological and biomedical journals. This also belongs to Thompson Reuters.
• DOAJ: DOAJ is an online directory that gives access to open access, peer reviewed journals primarily covering areas such as history, religion, geography, language and literature.
• EBSCO: The EBSCO database is very wide and includes the research titles that are compiled by company as well as journals, even from other databases as well as publishers. This also covers the full text of the research and does not limit itself to the abstract of the journal.
• UGC Listed Journals: The university grants commission gives a list of about 35000 multidisciplinary journals which are covered in the database of Web of Science, Scopus, Indian Citation Index and the journals recommended by the created standing committee and the recommended journals of the universities.

Recently, some more indexation services have come up. Some of the more popular ones are Caspur, DOAJ, Hinari, Index Copernicus, Open J Gate, Proquest, Ulrich’s International Periodical Directory. Whether these indexations are equally relevant and whether a journal indexed with any of these be actually considered indexed are questions that need further detailed discussions.

The secret of getting published in worthy journals with good indexing is the magic mantra that the beginner writers are looking for. Here are some of the secrets and best advice that will help you find a place for your phd research in a journal indexed in one of the above databases.

1. Have a focus: Get a vision, a reason, and purpose for writing. Academic wisdom is that there is no worthy writing without having the vision and focus towards what you want to achieve.
2. Write explicitly: There isn’t a substitute for excellent research and good clean writing. Neatness does count. Stay away from grammatical follies, violating of APA style so that the message is clear that you are a meticulous writer.
3. Have a Pre Review: Never send the manuscript to the editor before having it reviewed with fresh eyes. Have two persons look at it, one familiar with the idea of research and another who knows nothing about it. This will give you a holistic view and understanding of your research for the viewpoint of diverse readership.
4. Send your paper to the appropriate journal: Avoid discrepancy between the submitted paper and the scope and mission of the journal you have chosen. The more they are aligned, better are your chances of acceptance.
5. Have an impressive cover letter: One may not realize the relevance of a cover letter, but a good cover letter does give the push to your paper. Make sure it covers the fact that your paper conforms to ethical standards and you justify the rationale for choosing the topic and the editor’s journal for its publication.