There are no clear-cut guidelines on the most appropriate publishing procedure. Demands from the university, funding organisations, the political sphere, or the traditions of the research field itself, can all influence and affect your choice of publishing channel. Whether you are a PhD student or an established researcher is also likely to affect the publishing choices available to you.
When publishing, it may be beneficial to consider factors such as publication type, the possibilities for Open Access publishing, journal ranking within your research field, as well as external demands and your own desires in making your work visible to the right audience.
On this page you will find inspiration for devising your own publishing strategy.
Types of publications
In any given research field, there is often a consensus on which types of publication are currently considered the most important, e.g. journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, etc. Factors such as impact factor, success rate for manuscript acceptance, visibility and impact with respect to the expected audience, as well as the use of time and financial resources, can also determine which publication type you should choose.
Comparing journals
There are many different journal metrics in existence which, amongst other things, are used to compare the prestige and influence of journals. The natural sciences tend to use Journal Impact Factor, which can be found in Journal Citation reports, while for humanities and social sciences it is Scimago Journal Rank (which builds on citations from Scopus) that is most commonly used.
Funds and applications
The Research Support Office at AU helps you as a researcher to find relevant funding opportunities, prepare applications and manage complex EU projects. Please be aware that the funding organisations often require that research publications are made available as Open Access.
Publishing via Open Access (OA) journals, or publishing in traditional journals with subsequent parallel publishing, can help you to make your academic publications available online and thus more visible. When you are considering OA journals, be aware that there exist some dubious, predatory publishers and predatory journals in which it might not be advisable to be published.
When publishing, be aware of the terms in the agreement you sign with the publisher. This can affect what you are allowed to do with your publications later on. However, after the transfer of your rights, you can often ask the publisher for permission to use your work in other contexts.
Researcher ID and affiliations
You should systematically provide consistent name and address information for your publications so that they can be attributed to your university, faculty/institute and department/centre. By making use of a unique researcher ID (for example, ORCID), it is possible to distinguish yourself from other researchers, and ensure that you are recognised for all your work.
Visible research
There are many possibilities for publicising and disseminating your research results. Traditional methods such as peer-review publication, participation in conferences and participation in public debates via established news media may be complemented by an online presence on research networks or social media. Consider how far you hope to reach when communicating your research, and whether your aim is to be visible both in the research community as well as in the public sphere.
Impact
There are several ways to measure your academic impact. For publications searchable in Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar it is possible to see how many citations your publications have received, and calculate the controversial H-index for you as an author. In addition, an altmetrics score can give you an indication of how much attention your publications have received on various social (research) media platforms, such as blogs, Twitter or Mendeley.
More information
- Forskerportalen.dk (the Researcher Portal)
A page aimed at researchers based at Danish research institutions. Here you can find information about the many legal and ethical issues that are important when conducting research, such as those linked to publishing. - PhD on Track
A resource for new PhD students who want to learn more about searching and managing research literature, as well as publishing and evaluating research. - Publishing Strategy Guide
The Jönköping University Library has developed a guide to help you develop your own publishing strategy with the help of a Publishing Strategy Checklist.
