Subject Guides: Support for Authors in Scholarly Publishing: Identifying a place to publish

What tools are available to assess journal quality?

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
DOAJ is a community-curated list of open access journals and aims to be the starting point for all information searches for quality, peer reviewed open access material. A DOAJ Membership is a clear statement of intent and proves a commitment to quality, peer-reviewed open access.
IngentaConnect
IngentaConnect is a distributor of content from academic journals.The site hosts a free directory of academic journals, that may be browsed by discipline. For each journal, IngentaConnect displays Tables of Content and also provides a link to publisher websites.

MLA Directory of Periodicals This link opens in a new window
"The MLA Directory of Periodicals provides detailed information on over 6,000 journals and book series that cover literature, literary theory, dramatic arts, folklore, language, linguistics, pedagogy, rhetoric and composition, and the history of printing and publishing. Articles published in works listed in the directory are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography."
UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory This link opens in a new window
"Ulrichsweb is an easy to search source of detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals (also called serials) of all types: academic and scholarly journals, e-journals, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more." Includes open access journals. Many journals are reviewed here, allowing a quick assessment of influence/impact in a given discipline.

CWTS Journal Indicators
The source normalized impact per publication (SNIP), calculated as the number of citations given in the present year to publications in the past three years divided by the total number of publications in the past three years.
Eigenfactor
Rates journals based on the impact on the scientific community. The citation data used at Eigenfactor.org come from Thomson Scientific's Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The JCR provides detailed information about more than 8,000 journals in the sciences and social sciences which are indexed in the Thomson-Reuters Web of Science citation database.
Scimago Journal and Country Rank
Developed by SCImago using the Google PageRank™ algorithm, the website retrieves information for various indicators from the Scopus database. It is free, easily accessible, publicly available, and it makes finding and understanding journal rankings easy! The focus is on the sciences, but other disciplines are represented to some extent.

ERIHPlus European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences
"Our goal is to enhance the global visibility of high-quality research in the humanities and social sciences across Europe, and to facilitate access to research journals published in all European languages. The ERIH PLUS index encompasses the original ERIH lists, which initially only covered the humanities disciplines. The new reference index is called ERIH PLUS, in order to indicate that the list has been extended to also include social science disciplines."

AUP subject grid for university presses
Published annually in the Association of University Presses Directory, the Association also makes the Subject Area Grid available as a free download. The grid indicates the subject areas in which each member press has a strong interest.
PublishersArchive
Directory of academic book publishers with descriptions of their scope, and submission guidelines.
Reputable scholarly book publishers
A guide to reputable publishers.

Combatting Predatory Academic Journals and Conferences
This authoritative report from InterAcademic Partnership (IAP) details the markers of predatory publishers.
ICANN domain lookup: Removing articles from predatory journals
Use this site to look up the contact to send a DMCA takedown notice to.
Lists of predatory publishers
Several lists of predatory publishers.
Predatory publishers
Includes a checklist for book publishing with vanity presses.
Journal evaluation tool
A step-by-step guide to evaluating a journal.

Ways to identify predatory journals:

Always check the website thoroughly. Note especially any spelling or grammar errors.
Check the journal's contact information. The contact information is clear and accurate.
Check to see if the journal is a member of DOAJ, COPE, OASPA, or STM.
Research the editorial board. The editorial board is comprised of scholars with verifiable credentials.
Take a look at the peer review process and publication timelines. The peer review process should be described and the publication timeline should allow time for proper review.
Read through past issues of the journal. Look for markers of legitimate scholarly publication like verifiable scholarly authors and abstracts.
The scope of the journal's subject matter is narrowly defined.

Ways to identify predatory book publishers:

Reading costs. Genuine publishers won't ask for money to review your book.
Self-purchasing. Genuine publishers won't require you to buy copies of your own book.

Muhlenberg College Digital Repository: Scholarly publications
The digital repository is a record of citations of Muhlenberg scholarship over the past several decades, arranged by department. Many citations are accompanied by the full text when copyright permits.
Muhlenberg College Open Access Resolution
This resolution for open access was approved by the Muhlenberg College Faculty in 2014.