There are many different ways to evaluate and rank journal titles when looking for a potential place to submit a manuscript. For instance, analyzing established metrics scores is a good way to begin an investigation into possible titles.

Using the JCR (Journal Citation Reports), you can find information like impact factor, category ranking, percentiles, citations per year, etc. Also, the Google Scholar Metrics platform can be searched to find h5-index information on a journal – the h5-index is similar to the standard h-index score calculated for individual researchers in that it evaluates the number of most cited papers published and the number of citations received in other publications over the last 5 years (this is where the 5 in h5-index comes from).

Additionally, a resource known as JANE (Journal/Author Name Estimator) is helpful when evaluating potential journals. JANE allows you to input some keywords or copy your manuscript abstract into the text box to find related (1) Journals, (2) Authors, or (3) Articles. Note: I would not recommend using JANE for an article search. Its algorithm for retrieving relevant articles is not nearly as accurate as its other search options. JANE uses an algorithm based on the Eigenfactor score metric to provide a weighted list of results after running a search.

For further assistance or questions about analyzing and ranking journal publications, please ask us or visit the Publishing & Author Support section of our Learning Lab for links to related training materials and videos.