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Where to publish?

When publishing your research results there are several things to keep in mind. How can you spread your research as much as possible? Who are your primary target group and how can you reach them? Do you have the opportunity to publish with open access, and are there publishing costs?

On this page you will find information about visibility, impact, publication points, open access and how to avoid predatory publishers.

Consider this when you are choosing a journal or publisher: 

  • The purpose, content, intended audience and quality of your publication
  • Which journals cover articles on topics that are relevant to you?
  • Is the publishing channel approved as scientific in the Norwegian publication indicator?
  • How visible and findable will the article be if you publish in a given journal?
  • Is the journal indexed in the most important search services and databases?
  • Can you publish with open access? Are there publishing costs?
  • Do you retain the copyright to share your article if you publish in a given journal?

INN’s publication policy and national guidelines 

INN’s publication policy states that scientific articles from publicly funded research are to be made openly available. Researchers shall examine the possibilities for publishing their articles in open access journals and choose open access journals where academically acceptable. Only in exceptional circumstances may articles that are publicly funded be published in journals that do not allow the article to be made available in an academic repository. The publication policy is based on Norway’s National goals and guidelines for open access to scientific articles

How to identify relevant journals

  • Search the Norwegian register for scientific publishing channels Choose the advanced search option and refine by, for example, subject area and open access options.
  • Search for a topic in Web of Science. Click on Analyze results and choose Publication titles. This will display the journals that publish most articles within the topic you searched for.
  • Search for topics in other databases such as Scopus or Oria.
  • Use Endnote's Manuscript Matcher
  • Search DOAJ to identify Open Access journals. You can refine by subjects, peer review types, and journals without article processing charges.

Visibility and impact

How visible and findable will the article be if you publish in a given journal? The journal should preferably be indexed in the most important search tools and databases relevant for your field. Check whether you can find the journal when you search in Oria, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and other relevant databases.

If the journal is visible in these search tools, it is more likely that your article will be read and cited, since there is a greater chance that it will be found in a literature search.

Publishing Open Access will also contribute to the visibility of your publication.

Impact factor

In addition, you can check a journal's "impact factor" in Journal Citation Reports

The impact factor is used as an indicator of the importance of a journal to its field by measuring the number of times an average paper in a journal is cited, during a year.

Note! Impact factor should not be used as a quality measure of research. The impact factor is a quantitative tool for comparing journals, and not a measure of the individual articles that are published. There are many controversies surrounding such use of the tool and the calculations should therefore be used with caution.

Read about criticism of the impact factor on the website PhDontrack.no

Open Access

Publishing with open access means your publication is openly available to anyone, preferably with an open license. There are many different ways to publish open access.

Learn more on our web pages about open access publishing

Publication points in the Norwegian publication indicator

To achieve publishing point in the Norwegian system, your publication must meet the requirements for a scientific publication and the journal or publisher must be approved at level 1 or 2 in the publication system.

All approved publishing channels are at level 1 or level 2. A channel at level 1 meets the minimum requirements for a scientific channel. Level 2 covers the most prestigious and rigorous channels, which publish 20 per cent of the publications within its subject field Scientific publications at level 2 give more publication points than at level 1.

Suggesting new channels in level 2

Strategic academic units (scientific panels) in Universities Norway (UHR) assess the publication channels' level classification in their specific scientific field. If you wish to propose journals for level 2 or comment directly to the responsible scientific panel, you can do this on the respective scientific field's page.

Predatory publishers and questionable conferences

Be careful when someone who wants to publish your research contacts you. Not all of these represent serious publishing channels. Not all who get in touch are frauds, but beware. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is just that. Be careful with accepting invitations for special issues. There has been an explosive increase in special issues since 2021, especially in a few journals from the publishers MDPI and Hindawi.


Before accepting an invitation to publish, always consider: 

Conferences

  • Check with colleagues to see if they have attended the conference in question.
  • Choose a conference with experienced proper peer review system and not to wide in scope
  • Check Think. Check. Attend for more information
  • Do a Google search for the conference title, organiser etc. Other people often write about their experiences with scam conferences.

Copyright and open licenses

As a researcher and author, you normally have copyright to your research results. According to Norwegian copyright law the person that creates an intellectual, creative work has copyright to this work (§ 2). According to the Policy for the management of intellectual property rights (IPR), INN University is not granted any beneficial rights over scientific and non-fiction works, including dissertations, articles and textbooks. If your research is externally funded, it may be otherwise.

When publishing in international academic journals it is common that authors transfer copyright to the publisher, but the author keeps the right to be attributed as the author (moral rights).

The Norwegian standard contract for publishing in academic journals gives the publisher an exclusive right to use on paper for 18 months from the time of publication.

INN University and several research funders require that you make your research results openly available. If you have transferred copyright to a publisher, this may hinder open access. If you publish with open access, you retain copyright to the publication, and provide a open license to the publication. We recommend therefore that you are aware of what happens with copyright when you enter into agreements with a publisher or external funders, so that you can share research results as openly as possible in accordance with INN University's policy and the Norwegian national guidelines.

Additional resources

Feel free to contact the library for advice on publication channels.

Contact us

Email us at publisering@inn.no

You will receive a response from one of us who works with publishing support in the library:

Picture of Per Steineide Refseth
Universitetsbibliotekar
Email
per.refseth@inn.no
Phone
+47 62 59 79 21
Picture of Katrine Petra Fossum
Universitetsbibliotekar
Email
katrine.fossum@inn.no
Phone
+47 62 43 01 15
Picture of Ove Eide
Spesialbibliotekar
Email
ove.eide@inn.no
Phone
+47 62 43 04 94