Scholarly Communications at Georgia Southern University
Tools for Evaluating Journal Quality
As you think about where you want to to publish your research articles, you can always consult a publisher’s website or in ‘Instructions to Authors,’ but you can also assess a publisher’s or journal’s quality and trustworthiness using these tools:
- Lists & Directories: Beall’s List, DOAJ, Harzing’s Journal Quality List, and UlrichsWeb (on A-Z Databases list)
- Note that Beall's list was last updated in 2016
- Online Platforms (for journal metrics): Web of Science/Journal Citation Reports (on the A-Z databases list) & SCImago (Scopus) [NOTE: GSL doesnt subscribe to Scopus but the tool is free to use]
- Best Practices (organizations): COPE, DOAJ, OASPA & WAME
- Publisher Information: SHERPA/RoMEO for copyright and archiving policies
Additional links and references to these resources can be found in our slide deck from our 2021 Zoominar: "Evaluating Journal Quality (and Avoiding Predatory Journals)" [NOTE: For licensed resources on the A-Z databases list, log in with your GS credentials from off-campus]
Updates from Clarivate
Here are some new developments on the Journal Citation Reports platform:
- JCR Year metrics are available for 2020 (covering publications from 2018 and 2019). Also, there is an improved search interface and expanded journal list.
- Clarivate has announced a new metric in 2021: Journal Citation Indicator (JCI) - the average of citable items (articles & reviews) published by a journal over a recent three year period. The average JCI in a category is 1. Journals with a JCI of 1.5 have 50% more citation impact than the average in that category. It may be used alongside other metrics to help you evaluate journals. [Learn more]
- Manuscript Matcher: Find relevant, reputable journals for potential publication of your research using Manuscript matcher.
Scholarly Communications Newsletter - October 2021
Research Impact Areas and the Expert Gallery
With the development of Georgia Southern’s Research Impact Areas, we’ve enhanced the Expert Gallery to help match collaborators across the University. Faculty can now add one or more of the research impact areas as a research interest on the About page of their SelectedWorks profile. This will allow researchers to discover others with shared public impact research interests.
The more faculty that participate, the better the results will be! Contact Georgia Southern Commons to let us know which of the five research impact areas to add to your SelectedWorks profile. If you haven’t requested an update recently—or set up your SelectedWorks profile yet—send us your current CV to maximize your research impact.
Contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu share your research impact areas.
All of the University’s SelectedWorks profiles are included in the Expert Gallery. These professional, Georgia Southern-branded profiles provide scholarly information and publications with options to archive faculty work or link to it on other sites. SelectedWorks profiles organize and preserve faculty work, increase discoverability, and provide readership metrics that can be leveraged to help demonstrate achievements for external funding applications, annual evaluations, and promotion & tenure. Additionally, research can be archived in Georgia Southern Commons and featured in our Faculty Publications and Faculty Bookshelf collections.
The Expert Gallery is a public-facing, searchable database organized by area of expertise. It showcases faculty scholarship at Georgia Southern by collecting faculty profiles in one place. The search box at the top can be used to find individual faculty or locate groups of faculty within a campus unit. The “Explore All Experts” link is great for browsing by facets such as research interest, college, or department.
Colleges and departments can help by encouraging faculty to send their CVs and public impact research interests to Georgia Southern Commons. To make it even easier, Deans and Department Chairs can collect and batch-send faculty CVs during annual evaluations.
Every SelectedWorks profile increases impact by building the audience for research, which in turn builds the scholarly reputation of Georgia Southern. Boosting Georgia Southern’s research visibility also attracts the best students and partnerships, since so many of our visitors to the repository discover it through search engines like Google and Google Scholar. Even better, adding public impact research interests to faculty profiles improves opportunities to identify and connect with experts across campus.
In short, send current CVs and public impact research interests to Georgia Southern Commons. We’ll update SelectedWorks profiles, which in turn increases the power of the Expert Gallery to match innovative collaborations to advance the Georgia Southern public impact research agenda.
The Libraries create and maintain SelectedWorks profiles for faculty with our turn-key service, Additional information is available on the Libraries’ Institutional Repository Services guide. Complete this form to request a new or updated SelectedWorks profile, or contact us at digitalcommons@georgiasouthern with your public impact research interests.
Open Access Week
Open Access Week 2021 is October 25-31!
Why is open access so important for research?
For more information, news, and events, see our Open Access Week 2021 guide!
Updates from ICPSR
Here's the latest news from ICPSR:
Upcoming Webinars and Workshops:
- Webinar: Finding Available Data Related to Sensitive Topics, Oct. 27, 2021 :00 pm ET: [Register here]
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NACDA Pre-Conference Workshop at GSA (Gerontological Society of America) Virtual Conference, Nov. 10, 2021.
Check Out Data Brunch: ICPSR's podcast
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Stories about data, the people who use, seek, or create data, and why you should care. From ICPSR, the world's largest social science data archive. Proudly recorded at the University of Michigan.
Subscribe now and never miss an episode. You can listen on Soundcloud, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
New Releases and email updates
- What is ICPSR? Watch "ICPSR Stands for Data" (YouTube, 2:08) or visit the ICPSR YouTube channel, ICPSR 101
- Do you teach with data? See ICPSR’s Classroom Exercises and Resources for Teachers.
- ICPSR's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement