While doing research it’s the unwritten rule to publish your findings, not just to advance your academic chances or to make your CV exemplary but to put out ideas such that they encourage debate and further discussions, to share knowledge and experiences. Journals shoulder the responsibility of refine and define information and act as scientific filter, with monetary purposes where supply still outweighs the demand.
The following insights are cited from the article titled ‘What are Journals for?’ published in the journal PubMed Central by Ann R Coll Surg Engl (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4473415/).
A standard
journal accomplishes basic four crucial functions as per the table of content represented
in the first issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society:
Registration
of the author’s claim to the work – authors want recognition that they got
there first.
Certification,
usually by peer review, that the research was conducted properly – readers need
to trust what they are reading and authors want their claims accepted.
Dissemination
– authors want to reach the right audience and readers want access.
Archiving –
both the author and reader want a permanent public record of the work that can
be found and cited.
Navigation –
readers need signposts and systems that help them find the articles they want
to read (this fifth function was added after seeing an ever growing journal
population)
The journals
provide different niches for the communication of research, from ‘house’
publications that include more society information than original research
papers to large high-end journals that only include original research – and
everything in between.
Off lately,
there has been a demand for research information (particularly in the life
sciences) to be made freely available through open access.
Online
journals have certainly reduced the costs of production and delivery, although
the cost of managing quality control (peer review and editorial office
management) remains constant. For the authors, they have significantly
shortened the time from acceptance to publication.
Journal
articles are the final output of most research, and a researcher’s performance
and productivity are judged largely on the number of publications as well as
where they appear. Journals have become deep rooted in academic infrastructure.
A journal is
often perceived to comprise research articles but there are a wide variety of
articles that serve the purpose of communication and provide valuable
information to the community. News, editorials, letters, reviews, commentaries,
images, audio clips and other forms of ‘article’ can be equally valuable to
researchers, and can also be found in journals.
Here, is a list of chemical journals in library subscription-https://www.library.iitb.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/List-of-journals.pdf
https://www.niser.ac.in/library/content/e-books
Also if you wish to access free journals with top publications, the best way would be through your institute or you can check out the publication website that gives you a link to search for your institutes and then get the complete article without any cost, hope this helps.
