Guides: Nursing Research Guide: Publishing & Scholarship

Evaluating Journals & Publishers

Here are some sources of useful information, data & guidance for identifying the most appropriate journal for publishing your work. In addition to using these sources, remember also to use article databases (e.g. CINAHL, ProQuest Nursing, PsycInfo, PubMed) to identify those journals that have recently published works relevant to your research interest. To review content in one specific journal, use the library's "Journal Finder" search tool.

Journal Citation Reports This link opens in a new window
Provides ISI's journal impact factor metrics based on citation data. Helps determine a publication's impact and influence in the global research community. The previous version of interface is also still available here.
Effective June 30, 2025, this resource is no longer available to DePaul University. Visit our Cancellations page to learn more. If you have any questions, please contact John Leeker.
Cabells Scholarly Analytics
Use this resource to help identify and evaluate academic journals. Includes separate listings for "Journalytics" titles and those titles with "Predatory Reports."

Think, Check, Submit
Use this simple checklist to help identify publishers you can trust when submitting your works.

Ulrich's International Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Directory of journals and magazines published worldwide.
Extent: Multidisciplinary

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. DOAJ is independent. and all data is freely available.
Eigenfactor & Article Influence Scores
Open access and freely-available source of journal ranking information in the form of Eigenfactor® scores and Article Influence® scores.
SCImago Journal & Country Rank
Use this free/open-access portal to find journal ranking information based on information contained in Elsevier's Scopus® database (NB: the actual Scopus database is not available through DePaul).

Research Integrity & Misconduct

Here are a few suggested resources and tools you could use for identifying, avoiding and understanding instances of research misconduct and other sources of error, including fraud, plagiarism, data fabrication or data manipulation:

Retraction Watch
Tracks, monitors and shares information and analysis of journal articles that have been withdrawn/retracted owing to issues associated with scholarly misconduct.
Doing Good Science (Scientific American)
Follow & contribute to discussions on what constitutes good science, including the evaluation of credible scientific information
U.S. Office of Research Integrity
Numerous sources of advice, information & training on research integrity from the U.S. Government 's Department of Human & Health Services (HSS)
International Research Integrity Resources
Additional links to research integrity information sources from the National Science Foundation.
Beall's List of Standalone Journals (archived Jan 2017 list)
Beall's List website of potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access journals is no longer available, and this link is for an archived version of the list as it stood on 3 January, 2017.

Nursing Research Guide: Publishing & Scholarship

Evaluating Journals & Publishers

Research Integrity & Misconduct

Useful Information & Guidance on Writing & Publishing