Peer Review

Think, Check, Submit

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Mar 8, 2019 by Psychology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

Think-Check-Submit is a resource that helps students and professionals assess the trustworthiness of journals. It has been developed through a "cross-industry initiative led by representatives of ALPSP, DOAJ, INASP, ISSN, LIBER, OASPA, STM, UKSG, and individual publishers." Sharing research results with the world is key to the progress of your discipline and career. But with so many publications, how can you be sure you can trust a particular journal? Think-Check-Submit provides a checklist to make sure you choose trusted journals for your research.

The FAQ section of the website offers a succinct description: Think-Check-Submit “provides an easy-to-use checklist that researchers can refer to when they are investigating whether a journal can be trusted.”

While the stated purpose of Think-Check-Submit is to help authors check the trustworthiness of journals for article submission purposes, the provided checklist also can prove useful for university students who are assessing the trustworthiness of journals for researching topics.

The site consists of a 2-minute video and a concise checklist of questions.

Type of Material:

Tutorial

Recommended Uses:

The Think-Check-Submit webpage would best be used as a resource in research-related university courses where students are developing literature reviews or are writing articles for publication purposes. The site is useful for student researchers and faculty interested in publishing their research and understanding how to select a journal for a research submission.

Technical Requirements:

The site works with all web browsers. No additional technology is required.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

“Think. Check. Submit. helps researchers identify trusted journals for their research. Through a range of tools and practical resources, this international, cross-sector initiative aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications.”

Target Student Population:

The material could be useful for a variety of college and non-college audiences as follows: College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

This resource is most beneficial for students or professionals who are designing or conducting research, writing literature reviews, or who have had a basic introduction to research methods. Understanding the basics of the research process would be helpful to fully benefit from the resources provided.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The site provides a short video and several checklists covering the broad range of issues one should consider before submitting research for publication. It succinctly demonstrates the criteria for ascertaining the difference between trusted and predatory journals and offers a checklist of questions for assessing journals that is comprehensive and accurate.
Concerns:: Selection of a journal is often prudent prior to writing an article for submission. Different journals may have different requirements. The video on the home page suggests we are searching for a journal after writing.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The checklists provide a broad range of issues that any researcher should consider before submitting for publication. The stated objective is finite, clear, and overtly referenced on the website--i.e., to apply the Think-Check-Submit checklist to determine whether a given journal is a trusted source. The Think-Check-Submit website can easily be linked to courses or assignments. College instructors using this site as a resource in courses would not have to develop or provide additional instructions for students.
Concerns:: The presentation of content (e.g., an animated video) will make it appealing to an undergraduate audience that is still learning about research, publication, and journals.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The site can be directly translated into many languages. The headings are clear; the site is well organized. It is logically constructed--with navigation links that mirror the name of the website (i.e., Think, Check, Submit). The two-minute video provides a brief summary of the think-check-submit concept, and the follow-up checklist provides a clearly written list of questions to assess the trustworthiness of journals.
Concerns:: The two-minute video does not offer closed-captioning.

Other Issues and Comments:

This is a nice resource that can be linked to the web page of your research courses or to the instructions for your research-related assignments. An additional link-out to Think-Check-Attend is a bonus that extends students' consideration of journal trustworthiness to conference trustworthiness.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. If you are interested in getting involved, contact feedback@thinkchecksubmit.org

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