At this stage in my career the impact factor of the journal is less of a priority than it used to be. With the widespread availability and indexing of so many journals and individual faculty posting pdfs on their websites and sites such as this you can find work pretty easily. And we all know that there are some very good papers in lower ranking journals and quite poor papers in high ranking journals. For me the review and editorial process is now of the highest importance. Does the journal review papers in a timely manner? Is it double-blind? Is there a strong editorial board? Have I experienced or heard of complaints about the review process with this journal?

Of course, there are many other issues to weigh up, but the quality and timeliness of the review process is now the most important to me.

I. Formatting any social sciences/ psychology papers is now in

APA 6th Edition format. You tube will go over how to format social sciences and or psychology papers in this new APA 6th edition format

2. one that is researching scholarly Journals can go online to a Library website will allow one to reliable scholarly journals sources. 3. Web sites to also try out .gov . Edu . Org the website I would avoid is . Com everyone has an answer but not a reliable place to find scholarly by reliable sources ex Doctors and other credible sores s. I hope this helps Theresa

At this stage in my career the impact factor of the journal is less of a priority than it used to be. With the widespread availability and indexing of so many journals and individual faculty posting pdfs on their websites and sites such as this you can find work pretty easily. And we all know that there are some very good papers in lower ranking journals and quite poor papers in high ranking journals. For me the review and editorial process is now of the highest importance. Does the journal review papers in a timely manner? Is it double-blind? Is there a strong editorial board? Have I experienced or heard of complaints about the review process with this journal?

Of course, there are many other issues to weigh up, but the quality and timeliness of the review process is now the most important to me.

First, the work and quality which you want to be published are very important more than the journal you selected. I mean when the manuscript is published in international journal regardless the IF, the citation of your work is greater than the IF. Thus, I see the citation is more important than IF. As John has mentioned sometimes a poor paper can be published in high IF and v.v. can be.

When I select a journal, I usually consider these several factors:

1. Which journal is most suitable for my article? My article must fall in their publication scope.

2. The target reader, its fame in the circle of the journal.

3. Do the journal have high reject rate? If that, Is it possible that my paper be accepeted?

4. Does the journal charge publication fee? If charge, is it too high?

5. How long is the review process?

I choose Journal on the basis of 1) Impact Factor 2) Scopus Index 3) Editor and 4) Publishing group

When I select a journal to publish, it is important to know about the scope of the journal and if the paper to be submitted is equivalent to that scope.

And of course, the impact factor is crucial on the choice.

Double-blind refereeing, a competent Editorial Board, authors of at least some repute publishing there, and a record for a turnaround and useful referee reports.

A good reputation in my field, a high enough impact factor (or, at least, coverage in Scopus), suitability to my research topic, methods etc; no fees for authors. I avoid journals that require payment and publish whatever they get as long as the authors pay.

Parameters such as: Impact Factor, Scopus Index, Editorial Board, Publishing Group and etc. are very essential, but sometimes the price is very important in determining the conference or journal, especially for new researchers (students).

I think almost all of the observations I have read pertaining to what I look for in a journal are reasonable. I would focus on one issue that is increasingly common, namely, new journals that charge publication fees, often several hundred dollars and in some cases even more AND promise a very quick turnaround. A quick turnaround is a relative term; however,, when a journal promises a report and decision within 2-3 weeks or less, I am suspect of the review process [lack of rigor] and even more suspect of the decision [a potentially serious lack of rigor]. I am concerned that the objective of such journals is revenue generation more than production of scholarly value.

This is not to say that such journals do not publish good work, at least some part of the time; however, I would be concerned that the good quality papers that end up in paper-publishing mills could have been published in a better quality, more respected, and more widely read journal. The author in the end loses--the paper does not get the visibility it should--and the author does not get the labor market value that she/he should. Indeed, a mainstream journal may have made substantive recommendations that could have greatly improved the work and resulted in a significant contribution.

Another dimension of this problem is promotion and tenure. How do we fairly and honestly weigh these publishing mill papers against more traditional, mainstream journals. I think the differential value assigned could be and probably in most cases should be substantial, although there may be occasional exceptions for the "misplaced" manuscript. On the other hand, young scholars may be more easily misled into this environment and be truly innocent, i.e., naive victims.

1st, Scope of publication

2nd, Peer review

3rd, Indexing

4th, Impact factor

5th, Processing charge

6th, No. of volume per year

Remarkably, many journals do not assign a digital object identifier (DOI) each time an article scheduled for publication. This fact offers a means of separating seasoned, widely read journals from those journals just starting out.

In addition to the mentioned comments scope of the journal and the audience that would be most interested in and benefitted by the paper.