Publishing research in non-indexed journals
March 1, 2014 4 Comments
I wonder if publishing research in non-indexed journals makes sense, for there are proliferating lately scientific journals not indexed in any database or directory, and I guess that what lies behind are the following reasons:
- The scholarly publishing system is in process of change and evolution to a new model based in Internet and open access.
- Because of the current ease to set up an academic journal on the Internet, given the available of platforms such as Open Journal Systems (Public Knowledge Project), which already come prepared with the submission and peer-review process, archive of volumes, pipeline publication management, guidelines, etc..
- Now it’s possible accessing to researchers in the social networks for content in the chosen field of expertise, and for responsive peer-reviewers.
- The obligation and desperately need to publish for professors worldwide are growing.
- There is an (hypothetical) opportunity to earn some money.
But mostly I wonder why scientists may be interested in publishing their papers in journals without indexation, and by extension in academic journals that don’t have a good reader base, renowned quality processes, or a website well designed on academic SEO as for papers to be found at search engines like Google.
I can just explain publishing there as a favor to the journal editor, or if the manuscripts that we want to publish are based on not publishable research in other journals, always on the condition that they will be published in open access and that the editing time is simple and fast. But for that matter, wouldn’t it be better to publish a PDF and upload them in repositories such SSRN? I guess that those articles wouldn’t look good in the curriculum without the tagline ‘International Journal’ following the article…
The positive thing is that sure some of these journals will do well and survive, and even go indexing in relevant directories such as Scopus (Elsevier), Ebsco, DOAJ, or even ISI Web of Knowledge / Web of Science (Thomson Reuters).
What do you think?? Would you publish your research in non- indexed journals?
How to publish in journals 
To gain experience, I would publish in non-indexed journals. Indexed journals may take a long time to give feedback. When experience is there, say after 2 articles, then try the deep waters. You are not born walking, you learn to walk.
There are great articles in journals not indexed. And while there are scientific articles, with no real application in remarkable journals. But academically, only they value you, if you focus your efforts in publishing remarkable journals.
Makes really no sense to publish there. Far as i know no serious university would count them as research and in many universities it even destroys your reputation as this means your research was not good enough to be published in indexed journals.
An example of what happens in these cases also: Our research group presented and published an article in a non-notable international congress. Later, another foreign group completely plagiarized the article, added other points of research and it was presented in an indexed journal.