1. Scientific Rigor Read (at least skim) through some of the previous articles published in the target journal to identify the quality of scientific writing. The components of plagiarism check, peer review, and publication processes are good markers for a journal's scientific rigor.
2. Peer Review Process The journal website should be completely transparent about the various aspects of the peer review process including peer review criteria, selection of reviewers, the type of peer review, peer review timeframe, the actual execution of the process, conflict management methods, confidentiality, and ethical standards for peer reviewers.
3. Ethics Ethics related expectations from authors, guidelines and best practices followed [World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are some of the highly endorsed ones], and the trouble-shooting strategies used by the journal are good indicators of the journal's quality and reliability.
4. Editorial Board Members The availability of information such as credentials of the experts involved in the journal’s editorial board, affiliations with known institutions, and contact information of the editorial staff is indicative of the authenticity of the journal.
5. Editorial Quality Signs of editing lapses such as misspellings, grammar and punctuation errors, lack of clarity and cohesiveness in writing, casual and informal writing tones, and articles with titles and abstracts that do not connect with the manuscript are indicative of low editorial quality of a journal. Reputable journals publish frequent editorials authored by the Editor-in-Chief or members of the editorial board. These journals also frequently publish updates in journal policies for authors and readers.
6. About the journal Clear mention about journal details such as the aim and scope of the journal, mission statement, sponsoring organizations, editorial board, instructions for authors, copyright policies for authors, contact information, and publication fees (if any) - no surprise fees after submission for peer review are good assessment parameters for the journal reputation and reliability. Irregular publication schedule, missing/ sporadic issues, and over-marketing/advertising should be considered as red flags.
7. Indexing Status The indexing status of a journal indicates the position of the journal in the research community. Major bibliographic and citation databases such as MEDLINE®, Elsevier Scopus and EMBASE, Clarivate Analytics Web of Science, Cumulative Index for Allied and Health Literature (CINAHL), and others have strict guidelines for deciding the indexing status of a journal.
8. Impact Factor Scores Although impact factor is the single-most factor based on which authors often decide on the target journals for submission of their manuscripts, it is important to be vigilant of impact factors given as vague scores from non-citation data sources.
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