Finished your thesis?!? Congratulations!! 🍾
If you have decided you would like to submit your thesis for publication in a scholarly journal, this article outlines how to choose which journal.
Tip: Choose the journal you would like to submit your thesis to before you start modifying your thesis.
If you have decided you would like to publish your thesis in a scholarly journal, you will likely have to make some modifications to the thesis to convert it into an manuscript that is acceptable for publication.
Before you start modifying your thesis, however, I recommend you figure out which journal you would like to submit your thesis to.
It is important to do this before you convert your thesis into a manuscript because each journal has their own specific publication guidelines (e.g., re article length) that you are required to follow. You want to be make sure you follow a journal's specific guidelines to give yourself the most chance of your article being accepted for publication.
Three Tips for Figuring out Which Journal to Submit your Thesis to:
Tip #1. Check your Reference List
Have a look through your thesis reference list for the journals you have most frequently referenced. If these journals have published articles similar to yours, chances are they might be interested in publishing your thesis!
Tip #2. Check the Journal's Aims and Scope
Once you have short-listed potential journals you would like to submit your thesis to, it is important to make sure your thesis is the right fit for the journal. To help with this, check the journal's aims and scope.
A journal’s aim is the objective or purpose of what the journal is trying to accomplish.
The scope is how the journal will accomplish this.
The aims and scope will include a brief introduction to the journal, an outline of the subjects covered, and the type of articles published (and what it doesn’t publish). You want to make sure your article fits within those aims and scope.
Where to find the Aims and Scope of a Journal
You will find the journal's aims and scope on the journal home page, listed under, e.g., "About this Journal":
Tip #3. Check the Journal Quality
Once you have shortlisted a few journals to choose from, I recommend ranking these journals in terms of quality.
One of the best indicators of a journal's quality is its SCImago Journal Rank (SJR).
The SJR is a measure of the scientific influence of academic journals. It accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where the citations come from.
Higher SJR indicator values indicate greater journal prestige
You can search for the SJR rating of journals at: https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php
The SCImago website also allows you to search through psychology journals by different subject areas, to see which journals have the highest ranking:
When you view the SCImago Journal Rankings you will see SCImago also divides the journals in each subject category into quartiles, based on their rank. Quartile 1 (Q1) shows the journals are the highest quality within the field.
When considering which journal you would like to submit (a modified version of) your thesis to, you may, therefore, want to first submit your article to the highest quality journal (i.e., a Q1 journal). If you are unsuccessful with that journal, you can then submit your manuscript to the next highest quality journal.
Keep in mind that publishing your thesis in ANY peer-reviewed journal - no matter the "ranking" - is a major accomplishment. 🎉
Another way to check the quality of a journal is to check it's impact factor. You can read my more about journal impact factors here.
Happy Publishing!
Check out my tips for how to convert your thesis into a article here.
Not sure what happens after you submit your article to a journal? Read all about peer-review process here.