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Instruction: Evaluating Scholarly Journals

Not All Scholarly Journals Are Equal

It's important to know that not all scholarly journals are equal and need to be evaluated for credibility. 

Predatory Journals

Predatory journals exploit scholars and the academic publishing industry for financial gain.

Through aggressive solicitation, misleading metrics, poor transparency, and low editorial standards, predatory journals prey on researchers and authors who need to publish for academic tenure. 

Predatory journals can have ISSNs, DOIs, and professional looking websites.

Determining if a journal is predatory may take detective work. When a journal is open access:

  • Check the Beall's List to see if the title of the journal is listed as a predatory journal. Just because it's not listed doesn't mean it's not predatory.
     
  • Check the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to see if the journal is whitelisted as an approved open-access journal. Note, not all journals are open access. 
     
  • Check Ulrichsweb (a UAF Rasmuson Library database) to verify where the journal is indexed. Be aware that many predatory journals provide misleading information about where a journal is indexed. Just because a journal is listed in Ulrichsweb doesn't mean it's legit! Look to see if the journal is indexed in library databases.  
     
  • Ask your librarian or professor. 
     
  • For more information about predatory journals, see Predatory Journals: What They Are and How to Avoid Them.

Quality & Rankings

Journal quality and ranking vary significantly across disciplines.

Use Scopus (a UAF Rasmuson Library database) to help determine a journal's metrics. Not all journals can be found in Scopus. If you have questions, ask a librarian.

Below are several videos about Scopus and journal metrics:

Free tools for determining ranking include:

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