Many Ph.D. scholars/students are confused w.r.t publication. There are some suggestions for manuscript communication:
Where to submit the manuscript?
How to find the SCI/Scopus Indexed Journals?
When you prepare the manuscript, you have to read many works of literature.
Always try to read a good journal paper.
A good journal paper means only SCI/SCOPUS indexed paper.
Try to avoid paid journals for publishing as well as for literature surveys also.
First set your mind that where you want to publish whether go with SCI or SCOPUS Journals.
SCI Journals are more tuff in compare to other SCOPUS journals for publishing the manuscript.
From Literature, keep remembering or note-down journal name and publisher name. It will help you when you have to decide where to publish your paper
Then you can check that ur decided Journal is SCI or SCOPUS.
How to check Journal is SCI or SCOPUS?
First, check on the journal website, But it is not necessary that the journal website is updated or not. Better go search on the authentic sources.
The authentic source for SCI/SCIE journal, you can search journal details from below link: https://mjl.clarivate.com/home
The authentic source for SCOPUS/ESCI Journal, you can search journal details from below link: https://www.scopus.com/sources?zone=TopNavBar&origin=AuthorProfile
If still there is confusion or not clear that Journal indexing, then simply mark the mail of Journal editor. You can find the contact address from the journal website.
Paid or Unpaid Journal:
Those Journals, which are taking mandatory charges for publishing your paper, generally considered as paid Journals. They are taking charges for publication process and other things. To check whether the Journal is paid or not:
Go to the Journal website.
Find the instruction of author/author guidelines/ FAQ.
You can find the details of charges if applicable.
Many times, it is not easy to find the charges of paid journals.
if you are not able/confident that the journal is paid or not. then simply mark the mail of Journal editor. You can find the contact address from the journal website.
Open-access Journals Vs Paid Journals:
There are many confusions between open access Journals and Paid Journals.
Open-access Journals means where you can find and download the manuscripts without pay.
Open-access Journals have two categories:
Those journals which provide Open access facility without charging any not amount. Such types of Journals are considered as UnPaid Journals.
Those Journals which have a facility of Open-access and taking charges for Open-access but that Open-access facility (optional) is not mandatory. Such types of Journals are considered as UnPaid Journals.
Those open-access Journals which publish your work with mandatory charges are considered as Paid Journals.
Duration to publish manuscript:
This is one of the big factors which must analyze that how much time a journal will take to publish the manuscript.
Some of the Journals mentioned on their website the average time of first review and complete publishing time.
Those journals where you did not get any publishing time information, you can do some efforts, such as:
Take the feedback from your seniors/colleagues or any researchers. As per my experience, most of the Elsevier journals give timely reviews.
The best option is, you can mark the mail of Journal editor. You can find the contact address from the journal website.