Web of Science is one of the most authoritative databases for publishing research, but choosing a journal often causes difficulties for many scientists. What tools should be used when choosing a journal in the Web of Science database? What should you pay attention to? Let's consider this in today's article.
Why is it important to choose the right scientific journal?
Choosing a journal for publication is one of the foundations of the publication process. The Web of Science (WoS) database has a wide selection of scientific publications, consisting of more than 34,000 peer-reviewed journals. This allows researchers to freely choose the most suitable journal for publication.
The success of the publication, the author's scientometrics indicators, the visibility of the research, and its impact on the scientific community depend on the chosen journal. The wrong choice of publication can result in rejection and wasted time. It can also negatively affect the scientist's reputation, as all WoS journals have strict requirements for research quality.
What to look for when choosing a journal in the WoS database?
Thematic focus of the journal
If the journal does not specialise in the topic of your research, your work may be rejected before the review process even begins. Also, note that although Web of Science is a multidisciplinary platform, most of the publications in the database specialise in the following fields:
- physics
- mathematics
- chemistry
- biology
- medicine
- engineering sciences
- computer sciences
Be sure to consider the specialisation of the journal when choosing it for publication of your scientific article.
Journal access type
Open Access Journals are an effective tool for increasing the visibility and citation rate of your research. They provide unlimited access to articles, which contributes to the faster dissemination of knowledge. In addition, open access materials make information more accessible, as not every researcher has access to closed publications. This also makes it easier for the audience to find articles, which significantly increases the chances of them being cited.
Review terms
The Web of Science database mainly includes journals that use a double-blind peer review system. This type of review can take an average of 4 to 8 months, and sometimes longer. However, there are journals that use open peer review, so keep this in mind when submitting your article to a journal. If you need to publish in less time than the above, it is better to choose a journal with open peer review.
Journal scientometrics indicators
Before submitting an article, you should pay special attention to the metrics of the scientific journal, such as:
- Journal Impact Factor – the main indicator of the journal's prestige among the scientific community
- Quartile – demonstrates the influence and popularity of the journal in the scientometrics database
- Percentile – relative percentage indicator of the publication's rating
- Rank – an absolute indicator of a journal's influence in a particular subject area
Information about these indicators can be found on the Journal Citation Reports page. You can read more about journal quartiles in our article.
Choosing a journal with high scientometrics indicators will increase the number of citations of your work by other researchers and contribute to increasing your influence in the scientific community. Publishing an article in such a publication will also increase the scientometrics indicators of the researcher, their authority, and help make a significant contribution to the field of specialisation and science in general.
What Web of Science tools should you use when choosing a journal?
- Master Journal List (MJL). This is a handy tool for researchers that helps them find journals indexed in Web of Science. Here you can view information about the publication's metrics, review process, open access conditions, and editorial policy.
- Manuscript Matcher. This tool is based on Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports algorithms and helps researchers select the most relevant and authoritative journals for publication. Simply enter the title of the publication or keywords to get a list of journals that can be filtered by various parameters.
- Journal Citation Reports (JCR). One of the WoS tools is Journal Citation Reports (JCR), which is used to analyse scientific journals. With the help of the database, you can view the metrics of the journals mentioned above.
Choosing a journal is an extremely important and responsible process for every researcher. Following all of the above recommendations will help you successfully select a publication and avoid preliminary rejection by the editorial board.
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