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Journal Publishing

A guide to how to go about picking an appropriate journal to submit an article for publication and how to successfully navigate the process of submission.

Sharing Your Work

Many publishers allow authors to deposit a pre-print version or the accepted (post peer-review) version of their article into institutional repositories. This increases the impact of the articles since readers who do not have the journal subscription can access the article.

Knowledge@UChicago is a service managed in the Library to preserve and share the scholarly and creative assets of the University. The institutional repository is supported through a collaboration between the Library and IT Services at the University of Chicago.

Finding and Evaluating Open Access Journals

The number of open access (OA) journals soared in the past decade.  In the meantime, authors may have heard news about journals with dubious editorial and business practices and thus have questions about the quality and legitimacy of OA journals.

One handy resource for finding reliable OA journals is the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).  It indexes OA journals that pass its evaluation criteria.  Additionally, DOAJ serves as a tool for finding articles published by the indexed journals.  Other resources for finding OA journals include:

When considering whether to publish in a particular OA journal, you may want to refer to Think. Check. Submit. and follow its guidance for journals.  The video below provides an introduction to Think. Check. Submit. as an online resource.

If you are concerned about a journal's editorial practices, you can check whether the journal observes the guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).  UChicago authors who have questions about OA and/or OA journals can contact the Library's subject specialists or the Center for Digital Scholarship for assistance.

Sharing Requirements

Some federal agencies, as part of their grant requirements, may require researchers to share their articles in an open article repository.  The NIH is one example.  Below are some resources for understanding those requirements.

Subject Specialists

Chemistry and Geophysical Sciences Librarian
Andrea Twiss-Brooks
Regenstein 103; 773-702-8777

Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics Librarian
Jenny Hart
Crerar Library; 773-702-7569

Business and Economics Librarian
Greg Fleming
JRL 100B; 773-834-8987