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Theology and Religion Postgraduate Studies: Guidelines AI Pollution

Welcome to the guide for postgraduate research support. It is a mini-website that offers resources and library services for postgraduate students. Please evaluate material on web sites critical and use peer reviewed, scholarly information.

Journals

Step 1:  Does the journal appear on the accredited list?

•Accredited Journal List

•Archive of Previous Lists

 

Step 2:  Does the journal have a high impact factor/Cite score, and is the journal ranked well?
Use these online tools to check the journal ranking and citation score

 

  • Understand Journal Quadrants

  • Journal ranking systems use a quadrant system to rank journals based on impact factors or other metrics. The quadrants are divided as follows:
  • Q1 (Top 25%): Journals with the highest impact factors or metrics.
  • Q2 (Top 50%): Journals that are in the middle tier.
  • Q3 (Top 75%): Journals in the lower-middle tier.
  • Q4 (Bottom 25%): Journals with the lowest impact factors or metrics.

 

Step 3: Journals in Open Access 

 If a journal article or journal title has this symbol. Navigate to the Directory of Open Access Journals and make sure the article or title is available

 

 

Step 4:  Retraction of Articles

Retracted articles are articles that have been withdrawn, or retracted, by the journal that published them. Retractions can be initiated by an author or a journal’s editor. They may occur for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, honest errors in research, falsified or unethically manipulated data, unethical research practices, plagiarism, and undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Retraction Watch Database

Use the following search strings on the following databases:

 

In Web of Science:

  1. In the main search bar, use the drop-down menu to change “Topic” to “Document Type.”
  2. From the drop-down menu on the left, select “Retracted Publication” or, if you also wish to see more general corrections, “Correction, Addition.”
  3. Add another row to your search to search for retracted articles by topic, title, author, publication name, or year published.

In Scopus:

  1. Add the following string to your search:

AND "retracted"

  1. The results will include retracted articles, notices of retractions, and erratum (corrections) to articles. Some results may also be non-retracted, non-corrected articles that happen to have the word “retracted” in their abstract—such as in reference to a muscle—so view results carefully. Attribution

5. Predatory Journals

 

  • journal here, and it will show you the SJR ranking and quartile (Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4).

Google the journal name, add the word predatory and you can usually find an answer.

Authors

Author

  • Is the author an expert in the field?
  • Does the author have an h-Index?
  • Does the author have an ORCID?
  • Are they affiliated with a reputable university?

Article

  • Is the article well cited?
  • Are the references used from good, recent sources?
  • Was it peer-reviewed
  • Is the data available? Is it deposit in a data repository? Figshare