Library Services for Students: Student Publishing

It is a good idea to create a Researcher ID. These are numbers that identify all research that you have published by a number, instead of your name. Why is this important? It makes it easier to count all publications you've participated in throughout your entire career or in the case of a name change.

Although there are several ORCID and Researcher Profile are the two most common.

What's the difference between an Open Access vs a Hybrid journal?

Open Access journals are journals that make their journal fully online available to the public. It is important to keep in mind a couple things about Open Access Journals.

• Is the journal peer-reviewed? 
• Is the copyright right for you? Do you retain copyright? Do you get attribution? Can users share, copy, use your article however they's like? This depends on the publisher. Learn about copyright and ask if you have questions.
• Is it a verified, reliable journal? Predatory journals exist and you need to be VERY careful of them.
• Article Publication Charges (APC's) require the author to pay for their article to be peer-reviewed. This charge is set by the publishers and can range for $100's to $1000's of dollars.

Hybrid Journals are journals that are both available both online and print. Hybrid journals usually require a subscription payment, but publish online. The hybrid option was created to allow publishers to provide open access distribution, while also retaining the subscription model. It is important to keep in mind a couple things about Hybrid journals:

• Copyright varies between publishers
• Publishers charge APC's still for most articles (however, some will allow authors to publish in print for free. The downside is slower publication of articles and not all publishers give this option).
• It is important to choose a high-quality journal and read all the information before submission.

There is an increasing pressure for students and residents to publish the studies and articles they have completed or participated in, and with the increasing number of journals being available, it can be difficult to know which journal is the best match for your research. Various tools are available to help you choose. It is important to choose the best match to get your best shot of publishing!

There is also a negative side to the publishing industry...predatory journals. These are journals that do not follow scholarly, peer-review practice. They have been known to publish articles as is, with no peer review or edits. They lie about the journal impact factor and spread misinformation for the sole purpose of charging publication charges as their business model. They prey on eager students and residents that are eager to increase the number of publications.   

It is vital that you choose a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal that matches the kind of article/study you conducted, ensuring a publication record that you can be proud of!

RESOURCES FOR CHOOSING A JOURNAL

Journal Matching Tools

• Think, Check, Submit - Checklist for authors looking for help choosing and assessing a journal for article/study submission. This checklist was created by several publishers and organizations.
• Journal/Author Name Estimator - JANE allows you to enter your title and /or abstract and will help you locate journal titles. You can also enter keywords to bring back journal titles that align with those journals. This tool can assist you in finding journals that you may submit to. JANE also shows you if the journal is indexed in MedLINE and links you to their articles.
•  A-Z OhioLINK Journal Finder - Through NEOMED's membership in the OhioLINK consortium, a searchable list of ALL journals is available to you to search by keyword, subject, or journal title.
• Elsevier Journal Finder - Like the OhioLINK journal finder, you can search by keyword, subject and/or title; however, the only articles retrieved will be published by Elsevier.
•  Wiley Journal Finder - Insert your title, abstract or keywords to locate journal titles published by Wiley that may aligned with your article/study topic. It can also assist you with a customized list of 3-5 curated journal titles and a report.

  ---

  Journal Assessment Tools

• Journal Citation Reports - Available through Clarivate (Access through Web of Science) Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) presents quantifiable, statistical information based on citation data of the world's leading Science and Social Sciences journals. By compiling article level cited references, one can see the influence and impact at both the journal and category levels, and also the relationship between citing and cited journals.
• Journals Indexed in MedLINE - Journals must be peer reviewed and demonstrate editorial rigor to be included in the Medline database. Be aware that Medline is included in PubMed, but not everything in PubMed is in Medline.
• DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals - An authoritative and well regarded directory of open access academic journals. You can limit a search to medical journals and also ones that are peer reviewed.

Through NEOMED's membership in OhioLINK, students, staff and faculty have access to funds that assist in Article Publication Charges (APC's) to publish Open Access or Hybrid through the following publishers:

Cambridge, IOP (Institute of Physics), Wiley, Springer and Elsevier. There are limitations to agreement including: funds, time limits, submission dates and affiliations. Let's discuss these limitations broadly.

• Funds: There is a set amount of funds for APC's in our group for each publisher. Once the funds are gone, APC's fall back to author to pay.
• Time Limits: The funds are available on a calendar year basis. As the year progresses, the funds deplete. So, get your articles submitted sooner rather than later.
• Submission dates: The APC's are based on when you submit your article, not when it's accepted. This can create some confusion towards the end of the year. Furthermore, if the funds deplete after you submit, you are not able to pull your article and resubmit in January when the funds are available again. The library will send out updates when funds begin to deplete for each publisher.
• Affiliations: the submitting author must be affiliated with an OhioLINK institution. 

Please contact the library to get additional information about this agreement. It is a wonderful opportunity! In 2024, we saved author's over $80,000 in APC's!

The process of publishing is a learning process. Here are some additional resources to help you through some questions that may arise:

• How to get your research published
• Follow these 9 expert tips for getting published in a medical journal
• So if your paper gets rejected—don’t worry. Here’s how to handle it.