About Journal Rankings

Journal Rankings

Deciding on where to publish will usually involve identifying journals with a high ‘journal ranking’ in your discipline.  Journal rankings are the comparative values placed upon academic journals in any discipline relating to the quality and impact of the journal.  It is often difficult to identify accurate and unbiased journal rankings, despite the fact that journal rankings often have an impact on faculty evaluation and promotion information used within a university. 

For the researcher, the affirmation of a quality journal stems from the ranking indexes in their disciplines that are currently available.  Criteria for journal ranking are often related to the impact factor, or measure of citations over a particular period, but may involve other factors such as acceptance rates, reviewing policies, surveys or statistical algorithms.   Evaluate the ranking policy of any ranking list you find on the web.

Journal rankings within different disciplines are searchable via the Internet.  If you are unsure where to look in your discipline, consult with the Sedona representative in your College or Department. 

One freely available journal ranking covering a large range of disciplines is journal-ranking.com. Choose your discipline from drop-down menu of ‘journals to be ranked’.

Journal Editorial Information

Once you have selected a journal in which you would like to publish, details relating to the reviewing, editorial policies and requirements of the journal can often be sought from the journal website.  Alternatively, access databases such as
Cabell’s Business College Set or Ulrich’s Periodical Directory can be access via the ZU library.