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Research and Publishing Support: Checking for Quality

Research guide for information resources on citation count, journal impact, author identification, publishing, rankings and statistical analysis of publications

Introduction

You might be looking for a new publication outlet for your paper. You might get emails or be contacted by various journals or conferences to submit your paper.

Do be wary when things sound too good, e.g. promising a very fast turnaround for the peer-review process or publication of your paper.

Here are checklists for you to keep in mind when you consider submitting your paper.

See also the tab on Publishing for tools to use to check journals and publishers.

Webinar

Checklist for Journals

  • Do you or your colleagues know the journal?
    – Have you read any articles in the journal before?
    – Is it easy to discover the latest papers in the journal?
  • Can you easily identify and contact the publisher?
    – Is the publisher name clearly displayed on the journal website?
    – Can you contact the publisher by telephone, email, and post?
  • Is the journal clear about the type of peer review it uses?
  • Are articles indexed in services that you use?
  • Is it clear what fees will be charged?
    – Does the journal site explain what these fees are for and when they will be charged?
  • Do you recognize the people on the editorial board?
    – Have you heard of the editorial board members?
    – Do the editorial board mention the journal on their own websites?
  • Is the publisher a member of a recognized industry initiative?
    – Do they belong to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) ?
    – If the journal is open access, is it listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) ?
    – If the journal is open access, does the publisher belong to the Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA) ?

    Source: https://thinkchecksubmit.org/check/

Checklist for Conferences

Organizers & Sponsors

  • Are you aware of the society or the association organizing this conference?
  • Can you easily identify the venue of the conference?
  • Is it the first time this conference has been held?
  • Have you or your colleagues attended this conference before?
  • Is it clear what fees will be charged (e.g. conference fee, registration fees) and if these will be waived if you are accepted as a speaker?
  • Are any sponsors involved in the conference?
  • Are you aware of any of the sponsors, especially with industry-related fields?
  • Did you check the conference website? Can you find all the information presented in a proper way such as the (attendance fees, submission date, conference date, editorial committee, program details, venue)?
  • Have you read any papers from this conference proceedings before?

Agenda & Editorial Committee

  • Is there clear information about the timeline and the agenda for the conference?
  • Do the scope and objectives of the conference fit your field and core interest or not?
  • Have you heard of the Keynote speakers?
  • Is the Editorial Committee listed on the website?
  • Have you heard of the Editorial Committee members before?
  • Is the Committee clear about the editorial control over presentations and the type of peer-review it uses?

Conference Proceedings

  • Is the Organizing Committee clear about where the proceedings will be published?
  • Does the conference make it clear which indexing services it can guarantee published proceedings and to which indexers it will submit the proceedings for evaluation?
  • Is the publisher of the proceedings a member of a recognized industry initiative such as COPE, DOAJ, OASPA?

Source: https://thinkcheckattend.org/check/ 

References

The use of electronic resources must comply with the Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources Policy and Singapore Management University Acceptable Use Policy