Computer Science

Journals vary widely, so think before you choose a journal for publishing:

• Impact and ranking (may refer to Bibliometrics & Research Impact databases)

• Audience

• Peer Review Process

• Acceptance Rate

• Editor and Editorial Board

Online Guide: Research Metrics

Predatory journals (fraudulent, deceptive, or pseudo-journals) are journals which aim mainly at profit, and attempt to deceive authors to publish for a fee without providing robust peer-review or editorial services. They publish all articles, including low quality, unrelated to the topic of the journal, or nonsensical ones, as long as the authors pay a fee.

Some journals appear to have been hijacked, meaning that their websites or branding have been co-opted by a predatory journal or publisher.

Online Guide: Avoid Predatory Journals

Source:

• Elmore, S. A., & Weston, E. H. (2020). Predatory Journals: What They Are and How to Avoid Them. Toxicologic pathology, 48(4), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192623320920209

Open Access

Open Access brings you the following benefits:

• Improving reach of research
• Helping to provide evidence for impact
  
• Improved reputation for researchers and their host institution through increased citations
• Improved quality of research through open, transparent and reproducible research practices

Source: Jisc

Article Processing Charges Discounts & Waivers

To encourage open access, the Libraries has signed Transformative Agreements with various publishers to provide APC (Article Processing Charges) for HKU authors.

Details for Transformative Agreements

Online Guide: Open Access@HKUL

Compare journals and look for high-impact journals or articles:

• InCites (Benchmarking & analytics)

  develops research strategy, analyze institutional productivity, monitor collaboration activity, and identify influential researchers with the research evaluation tool.

• InCites essential science indicators

  discovers top papers in various research fields.

• InCites Journal citation reports

  discovers journals with metrics such as JIF (Journal Impact Factor).

• Science citation index (SCI, SCIE, SCI-Expended)

  discovers articles in impactful journals across various scientific disciplines indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded.

• SciVal

  visualizes research performance, benchmark relative to peers, develop collaborative partnerships and analyze research trends with the research evaluation tool.

• Scopus

  discovers articles and journals with metrics such as CiteScore.

• Ulrichsweb (Ulrich's periodicals directory)

  finds out whether a journal is peer-reviewed.

Online Guide: Research Metrics@HKUL

Before preparing a final version of your article for submission, read your target journal's Author Guidelines / Submission Guidelines to understand the journal's policies and practices, including but not limited to:

• Scope of the journal
• Manuscript types
• Document format
• Cover letter
• Research data policy
• Editorial policies
• Manuscript transfer

Many governments, funding agencies, institutions, and journals now require that authors make the data used in the research open, accessible and reusable. This is to ensure reproducibility, research integrity, and scientific rigor.

You may consider HKU DataHub, the cloud platform for storing, citing, sharing, and discovering research data and all scholarly outputs created by HKU researchers and RPG students.

Online Guide: DataHub

You may consider depositing your manuscript in a preprint server before publication for potential benefits such as:

• early dissemination of research findings,
• earlier and broader feedback, and
• higher citations.

Please check the journal policy on preprints first ⁠— some publishers may have restrictions on preprint servers, and some may not accept manuscripts already published as preprints.

Online Guide: Preprints

• ORCID
  ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier (an ORCID iD) that you own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other researcher. You can connect your iD with your professional information — affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more. You can use your iD to share your information with other systems, ensuring you get recognition for all your contributions, saving you time and hassle, and reducing the risk of errors.
  
• Web of Science Researcher Profiles
  You can track your publications, citation metrics, handling editor work, and peer reviews for journals, conferences, and funders in one place at Web of Science researcher profile.
  Learn more: Adding and removing publications from Web of Science Researcher Profiles
  
• Scopus Author ID and Profile
  You can register for your unique ORCID and use Scopus to import your records. If you need to make corrections to your Scopus profile, use Author Feedback Wizard to do so.
  Learn more: Understand how author profiles work tutorial by Elsevier  
  
• Google Scholar Profile
  Having a public Google Scholar profile helps you to increase the visibility of you and your scholarly work by making your published work discoverable and visible on one page.
  Learn more: Introduction to Google Scholar Profiles by Google      

Online Guide: Researcher Profiles

HKU Scholars Hub is to enhance the visibility of HKU authors and their research. You can find:

• Research or teaching Staff with a UGC Grade A - I

• Patents
• Publications
• Theses