Creating an account is free and comes with 25 credits to start. The Journal Finder is bundled into the Pre-Check tool, and each search costs 15 credits — which also returns your acceptance tier, detected field, and research gaps in the same run. Because it runs on a local index with no LLM call, it stays fast and cheap; credits are bought in one-time packs and never expire.

Does it warn me about predatory journals?

Yes. Every candidate is checked against a snapshot of Beall's List of predatory publishers plus a name-pattern heuristic. Flagged journals still appear — you keep the choice — but with an inline warning and a link to the evidence. There's also an 'exclude predatory' filter to drop them entirely.

How is this different from JANE or a publisher's journal finder?

Two big differences. First, it's publisher-neutral — Elsevier's, Springer's, and Wiley's finders only show you their own journals; ours ranks across 17,500 venues regardless of publisher. Second, it shows its work: every recommendation comes with the specific similar papers that drove the match, the journal's tier, and a predatory flag — not just a name and a percentage.

Why don't you show the real Impact Factor?

The official Journal Impact Factor is a proprietary Clarivate metric behind a paywall — we can't redistribute it. Instead we show the 2-year mean citedness from OpenAlex, which is open, comparable across venues, and measures the same thing the IF is a proxy for: how often recent articles get cited.

Does Science AI Journal recommend itself?

It can — but only through the same BM25 retrieval every other journal goes through, with no special boost. If your paper's topic genuinely matches the cohort we've published, our own journal will surface in the ranked list on its merits, the same way any well-matched venue does. If it doesn't match, it won't appear. The ranking is transparent and the 'why this journal' evidence applies to us too.

Can I filter to open-access journals only?

Yes. There's a one-click 'open access only' filter, plus filters for minimum tier, excluding predatory venues, excluding preprint servers, and keeping only journals with a known responding time. You can also sort by best match, highest citation rate, quartile, or fastest response — shortest reported turnaround first, with the stage and source labeled on every card.

Where do I actually run it?

It's built into the Pre-Check tool — create a free account (25 credits to start; each run costs 15 credits), paste your title and abstract, and the journal shortlist appears alongside your tier verdict. The same panel also runs inside the full AI Review, decorated with the additional signal from your complete manuscript.

Journal Finder

Journal Finder — match your paper to the right venue

Picking the wrong journal costs months. Paste your title and abstract and the Journal Finder ranks a shortlist of target venues from a 17,500-journal index — each one shown with its tier, open-access status, citation rate, publisher, and a predatory-journal flag. It runs on a local 4.5M-paper library with no LLM in the loop: deterministic, sub-second. Create a free account — 25 credits to start, each search costs 15 credits.

Find my journal — run a Pre-Check Or check for duplicate publication first

17,500

Venues indexed

15 credits

Cost per search

4.5M papers

Library behind it

Beall's-based

Predatory flag

What it does

A journal finder matches your paper's title and abstract to the journals most likely to publish it, ranked by evidence rather than guesswork. This one draws on a publisher-neutral 17,500-venue index and shows, for every recommendation, the tier, open-access status, citation rate, publisher, and a predatory-journal flag — plus the specific similar papers that drove the match.

It answers the question every author asks after the draft is done: where do I send this? Instead of guessing, or paying a publisher's own finder that only shows you its own journals, you get six fixed metadata chips per journal and a 'why this journal' panel naming the evidence. You see the reasoning, not just a ranked list.

Ranked shortlist with a letter-grade match score (A–F) per journal.
Six metadata chips in stable positions: OA · citation rate · tier · field · publisher · predatory flag.
'Why this journal' — the actual similar papers that drove each match.
Publisher-neutral: it is not tied to one publisher's catalogue.
Filters: exclude predatory, open-access only, minimum tier, exclude preprints, responding-time known.
Sort modes: best match, fastest response (responding time, shortest first), highest citation rate, quartile, SJR.

How it works (5 steps)

There is no LLM in the loop — the whole pipeline is retrieval and ranking over a local index, which is why it is instant, deterministic, and inexpensive (15 credits a search):

Step 1. Paste your title and abstract — Open the Pre-Check tool (create a free account — 25 credits to start; each search costs 15 credits) and paste the working title and abstract of your manuscript. Author keywords are optional but sharpen the match.
Step 2. BM25 retrieval over a 4.5M-paper library — Your title and abstract become a full-text query against the FTS5 index of our 4.5M-paper library. The strongest topical matches are retrieved in milliseconds — no LLM call, no API cost.
Step 3. Reciprocal Rank Fusion by journal — The retrieved papers are aggregated to their journals and scored with Reciprocal Rank Fusion (k=60), so a venue that publishes many near-matches ranks above one with a single lucky hit.
Step 4. Metadata decoration and ranking — Each candidate journal is decorated with its tier, open-access status, 2-year citation rate, publisher, field profile, and a predatory-journal flag — then re-ranked with field, recency, and predatory signals.
Step 5. Read the shortlist with evidence — You get a ranked shortlist with a letter-grade match score, the six metadata chips, and a 'why this journal' panel showing the specific similar papers that drove the match. Filter and sort to taste.

Predatory-journal protection

A journal finder that surfaces predatory venues without warning is worse than none at all. Every candidate is cross-referenced against a snapshot of Beall's List of predatory publishers, plus a name-pattern heuristic for the tell-tale 'International Journal of …' clusters with thin publication histories.

When a journal is flagged, it still appears in the results — you keep the agency to make your own call — but with an inline warning above the title and a link to the evidence. The point is informed choice, not a hidden filter. You can also switch on the 'exclude predatory' filter to drop them entirely.

When to use it

The Journal Finder is highest-leverage at these moments:

After the draft is done, before you commit to a target — compare three or four venues side by side.
After a desk rejection — find the next-best-fit venues without restarting the search from scratch.
When you're new to a field and don't yet know its journal landscape.
When a colleague suggests a journal you don't recognise — check the tier and the predatory flag before you trust it.
When you need an open-access venue specifically — the OA-only filter narrows the 17,500 down instantly.

What it does NOT do

Honest limitations, because a finder you can't trust the boundaries of is a finder you can't trust:

It does not report the official Journal Impact Factor — that metric is paywalled by Clarivate. We use the 2-year mean citedness from OpenAlex as an open, comparable proxy.
It does not PREDICT acceptance rate or time-to-decision. Where a journal reports its own turnaround — DOAJ self-reported submission→publication time today, publisher-reported decision times as we index them — we show that number with its source and date. Everything else stays honestly blank; we don't fake it.
It only knows the 17,500 venues with enough coverage in our 4.5M-paper library. A highly specialised journal with thin coverage may not surface.
It is a shortlist, not a decision. Scope, aims, and recent issues of the actual journal are still yours to read before you submit.

Frequently asked questions

It runs your title and abstract as a full-text BM25 query against the local index of our 4.5M-paper library, retrieves the strongest topical matches, then aggregates those papers to their journals using Reciprocal Rank Fusion (k=60). A venue that publishes many near-matches ranks above one with a single lucky hit. There is no LLM in the loop — the result is deterministic and fast.

Related tools

Research Gap Finder — still choosing a topic? Find open, citable research gaps in your field before you write.
AI Peer Review — get editor-ready feedback from 8 specialist agents before you submit to the journal you picked.
Predatory journal checklist — the warning signs to check before you submit anywhere — a 5-minute read that pairs with the finder's predatory flags.

Find my journal — run a Pre-Check Read the engineering blog