3. Data

I. Overview

Where to Publish? combines a manually curated database of life science journals with data from several external sources. The data is processed monthly via an automated pipeline and published as CSV files that power the website.

Data flow:

Google Sheets (manual curation)
        ↓
   download_csv.sh
        ↓
  data_extracted/*.csv
        ↓
  update_extracted.py  ← External sources (Scimago, OpenAPC, DOAJ)
        ↓
  data_process.py
        ↓
     data/*.csv  → Website

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II. Our Data

1. Primary Database

The core journal list is maintained in a Google Sheets document:

📊 View the Database

This spreadsheet contains manually curated information including:

• Journal names and websites
• Field classifications
• Publisher names and types
• Associated institutions
• Business model classifications

2. Curation Process

Journals are added through:

1. Community submissions via our Google Form
2. Maintainer research to fill gaps in specific fields
3. Bulk imports from trusted sources (e.g., DAFNEE for ecology/evolution)

All submissions are reviewed by maintainers before inclusion. We verify journal legitimacy and cross-reference against known predatory journal indicators.

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III. External Data Sources

We enrich our curated data with information from the following sources:

1. Scimago Journal & Country Rank

🔗 scimagojr.com

Provides:

• Scimago Rank (SJR): Citation-based journal impact metric
• Scimago Quartile: Field-normalized ranking (Q1–Q4)
• H-index: Journal-level citation metric
• Open access status: Whether the journal is indexed as OA or Diamond OA

2. OpenAPC

🔗 openapc.net

Provides:

• Article Processing Charges: Average APCs in euros, calculated from the last 3–5 years of reported payments
• Business model indicators: Helps identify hybrid vs. full OA journals

OpenAPC collects APC payment data from universities and research institutions worldwide, offering transparency into actual publication costs.

3. DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

🔗 doaj.org

Provides:

• Publisher information
• Country of publication
• Journal website URLs
• Institution associations

DOAJ indexes over 22,000 open access journals and serves as a quality indicator — inclusion requires journals to meet specific editorial and transparency standards.

4. DAFNEE

🔗 dafnee.isem-evolution.fr

The Database of Academia-Friendly jourNals in Ecology and Evolution provides comprehensive information about non-profit, learned society, and university-associated journals specifically in ecology and evolution. Contains 600+ journals.

5. Sorbonne University Non-Predatory Journal List

🔗 SU List

A list of ~3,400 journals presumed non-predatory, curated by consulting 58 medical specialty experts. Established in September 2021 and updated quarterly. We use this list to help filter out potentially predatory journals.

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IV. Data Processing

Data is updated monthly via a GitHub Action that runs the following pipeline:

1. Download Raw Data

scripts/download_csv.sh

Downloads the latest data from Google Sheets into data_extracted/*.csv (one file per field).

2. Enrich with External Sources

python scripts/update_extracted.py

Joins journal data with Scimago, OpenAPC, and DOAJ to fill in:

• Scimago Rank, Quartile, and H-index
• Average APCs
• Publisher and country information
• Open access status

3. Process and Deduplicate

python scripts/data_process.py

• Normalizes and cleans all fields
• Removes duplicate entries (by journal name or URL)
• Generates field-specific CSV files in data/
• Creates data/all_biology.csv containing all journals (deduplicated)

4. Output Format

Final CSV files contain the following columns in order:

Journal, Field, Publisher, Publisher type, Business model,
Institution, Institution type, Country, Website, APC Euros,
Scimago Rank, Scimago Quartile, H index, PCI partner

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V. Contributing to the Data

See Contributing for instructions on:

• Adding new journals
• Correcting existing entries
• Suggesting new data sources