How to find journals for publication

Choosing the right journal is often the biggest hurdle after finishing a research article or extracting a paper from a PhD or Master’s thesis. The practical way forward is to start with journal databases that let researchers filter by subject area, then narrow options based on fit and publishing logistics—especially publication fees and processing time.

A first, database-driven route uses Emerald Insight. By going to emerald.com and browsing “books and journals,” researchers can view thousands of listed titles (over 4,000). The key step is filtering by subject area and then selecting a relevant subcategory. For example, a paper tied to “HR and organizational behavior” can be narrowed further to a subtopic like “global HRM,” which yields a manageable list of journals and books (34 in the example). Researchers can then display all results on one page and identify specific journal titles that match the topic.

The same filtering approach works with Elsevier’s journal catalog. Using the Elsevier site, researchers select “Publish with Elsevier,” then open the “Journal catalog.” From there, keyword search plus subject filters (such as “Social Sciences and Humanities,” then narrower areas like “Business, Management and Accounting,” and further categories like “Administration and marketing”) produces a short list of journals. That list can include practical decision metrics such as ISSN numbers, impact factors, and acceptance rates, helping researchers compare journals beyond just topical relevance.

SAGE’s journal directory offers another structured path. At journals.sage.com, users browse by discipline—starting with “Social Sciences and Humanities”—and then select a specific subject such as “Management and organizational studies.” This can reduce a large discipline set (806 journals) down to a focused subset (122 journals) aligned with the research theme.

For researchers with more experience, Google Scholar becomes a powerful complementary strategy. Instead of starting from a journal list, researchers search for topic-specific keywords (for example, “employee volunteering”), then filter results by recency (such as since 2020). The goal is not to pick the articles themselves, but to identify which journals have published on that keyword recently. If an article on the topic appears in a known journal—such as “Human Resource Management Review” in the example—then that journal becomes a strong candidate for submission.

Regardless of the search method, journal targeting still depends on submission realities. Researchers should account for article quality expectations, publication fees, and processing time, since some journals may be unsuitable if they take too long—particularly when timelines matter. The overall workflow is clear: use databases to shortlist by subject fit, use Google Scholar to validate topical relevance through recent publications, then apply practical constraints to finalize the submission targets.