If you want to browse papers, book chapters, conference papers, and e-theses produced by Swansea's research community this is the place to go!
Further information about the Research Information System (RIS) and the repository (Cronfa).
How do I choose a journal to publish in?
Use the comprehensive checklists provided by Think, Check, Submit.
Also consider:
The Journal Impact Factor is a measure reflecting the annual average (mean) number of citations to recent articles published in that journal. However, it cannot be used as an indicator of the quality of individual articles or authors. In most journal volumes, one or two articles accrue a large proportion of citations, and the other articles in the volume pick up one or two each, so a high impact factor is no guarantee that your paper will get citations.
The journal impact factor and similar calculations are misleading in their claims and do not necessarily translate into more citations for your work. The best route for 'impact' i.e. getting your paper read and cited is for your paper to be solid, good science, and accessible to more people i.e. Open Access (OA).
Author's accepted manuscript version (AAM): normally the final peer-reviewed article that has been accepted for publication but has not been formatted with the publisher’s copyediting, typesetting or final layout. The 2023 Research Publications Policy enables self-archiving of the AAM with a Creative Commons CC BY licence and a zero embargo period.
Published version of record (VoR) incorporating the layout and typographical arrangement of the publisher. You are not usually able to upload the publisher created PDF version unless:
Contact the corresponding author or your co-authors so that you can upload a copy within three months of acceptance. If you cannot obtain your final manuscript then we can apply a REF exception to your paper.
Non-UK authors may need an explanation about the UK HEFCE/HEFCW requirement that UK authors are required to deposit the final accepted manuscript (AAM) in their institutional repository. The AAM is the version of the article that was peer reviewed but is without the publisher's typesetting, volume number etc.
You need to be aware that many research funders and the Swansea University Research Publications Policy require immediate open access with a Creative Commons CC-BY attribution licence applied to the accepted manuscript (AAM).
What are they?
Pre-prints are versions of your paper before it has been submitted to peer-review. The use of pre-print servers varies significantly between disciplines, being a well known practice in areas like Physical Sciences, and unheard of in others.
Why should I bother?
Posting a pre-print on a specific pre-print server or repository means your work has the potential to reach other researchers in your discipline and citations can accumulate, earlier. It is also useful to gather early feedback on the paper from your peers, before the official peer-review process of the journal you submit to.
Will my paper be scooped?
Pre-prints can actually help protect your work from being ‘scooped’. Most servers register papers on receipt enabling you to establish provenance should another similar paper be published after yours. Many pre-print servers enable you to add a DOI allowing you to keep track of your paper and its citations.
Swansea Specifics
Swansea University researchers are not restricted from using preprint servers by the institution. Individual researchers considering submitting a paper do need to check the funder and journal to see if any restrictions apply. This can be done using SHERPA services and searching the journal you are considering submitting to. The benefits of submitting preprints in terms of citations, engagement and impact will not materialise unless the author/college publicise the paper themselves especially in disciplines which are only just starting to use pre-print servers.
Pre-print servers include:
Publish With Us
We are an institutional online publisher of Open Access electronic journals and scholarly digital editions. Our catalogue of titles allow readers to access and use the content free of charge under a Creative Commons licence. We are growing this service and welcome enquiries from Swansea University researchers considering starting an academic journal.
Contact: digitalhumanities@swansea.ac.uk for further information.
Discover how the DOAJ Open Access Journals Toolkit can provide guidance for new and established open access journals in the scholarly publishing landscape. The toolkit is also available to download as a PDF from DOI 10.5281/zenodo.8017032
Our Titles
Swansea University is a member of OASPA: the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, which represents the interests of OA journal and book publishers globally in scientific, technical and scholarly disciplines.
