Lawrence Chikwanha LIBRARIAN – GREAT ZIMBABWE UNIVERSITY Workshop On Identifying Reputable And Predatory Journals, And Using Author Guidelines

 Introduction  Choosing Which Journal to Publish In  The Zimbabwean Scenario  Some International Examples  Arts & Humanities Index  IBSS  Social Science Citation Index  Science Citation Index  Regional Examples  DHET  Conclusion

 Selecting the most appropriate journal based on disciplinary reputation, peer-review quality and selectivity standards is an important first step for scholars when submitting a manuscript for publication.  It is more important than ever that scholars carefully evaluate and select the publications in which they wish to disseminate their work. With the explosion in the number of newly-formed scholarly journals, the selection task can be daunting. While many journals are respectable, adding important conversations and discoveries to the scholarly landscape, others are not.

 So-called predatory publishers are those that lack discernible scholarship, academic rigour or credibility. They use aggressive practices to recruit authors and editors. Predatory publishers’ opaque operations and editorial processes are suggestive of an intention to deceive both authors and readers (Butler, 2013).  Jeffrey Beall, defines predatory OA journals as ones whose primary goal is “to generate profits rather than promote academic scholarship”

 With the rise of fake and dubious journals, tenure and promotion committees in many HEI’s are now paying particular attention to where their Faculty publish their articles.  Scholars are now under increased pressure to ensure that they publish their research in journals that are accredited.

 With the advent of the Internet this is now a daunting task  Tools that assist like JANE

 There is no formal list of accredited journals from any of the regulatory agencies  Where these exist they are institutional based  An informal survey of HEI’s in the country show they use international lists e.g. UZ

 The Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), also known as Arts & Humanities Search, is a citation index, with abstracting and indexing for more than 1,700 arts and humanities journals, and coverage of disciplines that includes social and natural science journals. Part of this database is derived from Current Contents records.  Subjects covered are the Arts, Humanities, Language (including Linguistics), Poetry, Music, Classical works, History, Oriental Studies, Philosophy, Archaeology, Architecture, History, Religion, Television, Theatre, and Radio.

 The Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI ) is listed herehere

 The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) is a bibliography for social science and interdisciplinary research. The database focuses on the social science disciplines of anthropology, economics, politics and sociology, and related interdisciplinary subjects, such as development studies, human geography and environment and gender studies. It was established in 1951 and prepared by the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris. Production was transferred to the London School of Economics in 1989, and then to ProQuest in 2010.

 IBSS includes approximately 2.7 million references to journal articles, books, reviews and selected chapters and is growing at the rate of about 100,000 items per year. Over 2800 current journals are regularly indexed, as well as 1415 ceased titles. Coverage extends from the present back to It also includes records for about 400,000 books, including 60,000 individual book chapters – 7,000 books are added each year. There is considerable international coverage; about 50% of the titles included are published outside the US or the UK, with about half of those in English and half in other languages. About three-quarters of the current journal articles have abstracts.

 The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences is listed herehere

 The Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) is an interdisciplinary citation index product of Thomson Reuters' Healthcare & Science division. It was developed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) from the Science Citation Index.  This citation database covers some 2,474 of the world's leading journals of social sciences across more than 50 disciplines.

 The Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) linklink

 The Science Citation Index (SCI) is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield. It was officially launched in It is now owned by Thomson Reuters. The larger version (Science Citation Index Expanded) covers more than 6,500 notable and significant journals, across 150 disciplines, from 1900 to the present. These are alternately described as the world's leading journals of science and technology, because of a rigorous selection process.

 Click here to view the SCISCI

 This is a list produced by the Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africalist

 There are a number of directories of periodicals that are produced e.g. DOAJ, Ulrich’s etc  These provide the academic writer with a resource that is rich in identify high quality publishing opportunities

 This is a list produced by the Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa link

 Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.

 There are a plethora of tools available to aid academics in identifying a suitable accredited journal to publish in.  There is no excuse for publishing in journals of dubious origin  Remember when in doubt always ask your Faculty Librarian to assist you in selecting a suitable journal for your manuscript

 Questions?  Thank You  Matendwa  © L. Chikwanha  Acknowledgements: This presentation on material obtained from Wikipedia and the websites of the various organizations covered in this presentation