Research journals can be excellent. They can also be mediocre, incompetent or exploitive. Yet publishing in and working with quality scholarly journals is a vital component of academic life. When a journal is unknown, how can academics determine the quality of a journal?
This question is even more important for open access journals, which are recent arrivals, are frequently abundant, are often from unknown publishers, and are sometimes deliberately confusing.
Journal quality determination is a skill like any other, initially confusing but achievable with practice.The tools in this guide are available to UConn authors, editors and reviewers to use on your own. If you have questions or need assistance with this process please contact your subject librarian (see below).