Not sure where to publish your article? Ask Jane!

Are you looking to write an article for a scholarly journal, or already have but don't know where to submit it to? Try asking Jane.

Jane (the 'Journal / Author Name Estimator') is a tool for finding relevant journals in your subject area. Simply enter your title (and abstract if you have one), click 'Find Journals' and see what Jane suggests.

Jane compares your article title and abstract to millions of articles in PubMed and find journals with the best matches. Jane also shows each journal's  Article Influence (AI) score and indicates which journals are indexed in Medline, and which ones offer open access without charging.

Checking Jane can also help you to avoid predatory publishers.

If you're looking to write or publish, don't forget that library staff can help you with literature searches, supply copies of books or articles you're referencing, and we also maintain a database of staff publications to help you publicise your work.

Picking the right journal to publish in

Thinking of writing for publication? Before you submit an article to a journal for possible publication, it is worth considering that not all journals are reputable. Some journals are published by so-called 'predatory publishers' that may ask for payment to peer-review and publish your article, but then don't provide the editorial and publishing services associated with legitimate journals.

Many legitimate open access journals may make a charge to publish (Article Processing Charge) but these will provide a proper peer-review, editorial and publishing service and your article will be properly published and usually indexed in relevant subject databases (assuming it is accepted!).

It is worth visiting the thinkchecksubmit website, that has a useful checklist to follow to check the trustworthiness of a journal.

These include questions such as:

If you're considering publishing an article, it can also be useful to look into which journals have the highest impact factors in your subject area. If you're interested in finding out journal impact factors, please contact Jason Curtis in the Shrewsbury Health Library on 01743 492507.