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Do people browse (mid- to lower-tier) journals?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Does anyone browse mid- to lower-tier journals looking for something to read, or do people only read articles there when something outside refers them to them?

Personally, I don't browse journals simpliciter: I just see what comes up in PhilPapers's new items list or whatever else I come across in the course of my research (viz. Google Scholar, etc.). In any case, I don't discriminate between tiers of journals. If a paper is relevant to what I'm writing, then I cite and/or engage with it in detail. If it's not, then I don't.

What about other readers? Do you "browse journals"? Or is your research process more freewheeling like mine?

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14 responses to “Do people browse (mid- to lower-tier) journals?”

  1. Specialist

    I do, but only the specialist journals in my subfield

    Reply
  2. Declan

    As with Marcus, I do not browse journals at all, outside of times where I want to see if a journal would be a good fit for a paper submission. I almost exclusively find papers via keyword search on philpapers or by them being referenced in other journals. I often don’t even pay very much attention to the journal that papers I am reading were published in.

    Reply
  3. CW

    I approach this the way Marcus and Declan do. I’ll add that if I find one of your papers interesting, I’ll probably look for your webpage to see if there’s more worth a look.

    Reply
  4. anon

    I browse specialist journals once in a while (Phil East and West, Journal of Buddhist Ethics). Otherwise I read something because I throw in the relevant keyword on PhilPapers and find it, or because Google Scholar reveals that it cites something I’m already reading.
    Also, Google Scholar shows me new publications I may be interested in and gets it right like half the time.

    Reply
  5. Michel

    The only journals I browse are specialist journals.

    Reply
  6. Junior faculty

    I also never simply browse journals. It doesn’t sound bad or anything, but I have such a huge list of things to read that it never seems like browsing is necessary. When I have a new idea, I search on philpapers and google scholar for relevant papers, and search through reference lists while reading. I have enormous lists I have built that way. I also get so many recommendations from philpeople, social media, the blogs, and things sent by friends and colleagues, that I could never read it all in 2 careers…
    I also read anything that looks relevant from any reputable journal, press, proceedings, or anthology. So, I find lots of things that I like in less prestigious places.

    Reply
  7. Trevor Hedberg

    Almost all the journal articles I read are things I search for by topic rather than publication venue, so I don’t tend to distinguish much between the prestige of the journals in that process. I may consider the number of citations the work has, since that can be an indicator of its significance in the literature, but lots of widely cited papers don’t appear in the most distinguished journals.

    Reply
  8. senior

    I think the reader makes it clear that they do NOT browse mid- and lower tier journals. And, for good reason. I work in philosophy of science and there are about 8 or so journals that publish in philosophy of science that are worth reading. Then there are the good general journals that publish philosophy of science regularly (Erkenntnis, Synthese …). But many many journals are not worth the trouble of reading. In fact, when I get ToC alerts, I often see that papers I recommended “reject” at a good journal end up in those journals. The journals are NOT all equal, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either deluded or having a bit fun with you.

    Reply
  9. Daniel Weltman

    I’m subscribed to the feeds of a few “lower tier” journals. Mostly though I find things the way other people have described finding things.

    Reply
  10. Polaris Koi

    I browse journals of all tiers in a few different scenarios. The ranking doesn’t really matter, as long as the venue is reputable:
    – I’ve opened the journal website to check out a paper, and get the impulse to check out what else is new.
    – I’m getting into a new topic and the journal publishes a lot of work on that topic. (Particularly in philosophy, sometimes similar issues are discussed under different terms and so a simple word search doesn’t necessarily capture all that I’m looking for.)
    – I (or a mentee) am considering submitting to the journal, and I want to check out what they’ve published recently to make sure it’s as good a fit as I think.
    In all of these cases, I might come across stuff that’s relevant for my work and read it or save it for later. That said, most of my reading is directed the way others in this discussion have pointed out: through word searches, recommendations, and reference lists.

    Reply
  11. Topic search

    I was under the impression that sometimes people browse top journals to look for new interesting topics to work on, though I’ve never done so myself. I guess no one here can confirm that?

    Reply
  12. Polaris Koi

    @senior: Whether or not “all journals are equal” (a claim I haven’t seen anyone make) is beside the point. What matters for the purpose of doing good research is reading stuff that helps one do good research.
    Even assuming that all papers in lower-ranked journals are flawed, helpfulness and flawlessness are not the same.

    Reply
  13. Assistant Professor

    Like others, I don’t browse journals, per se, but I do subscribe to email tables of contents for the main journals that typically publish content relevant to my subfields to be aware of the general discussions going on in those areas, and then to find new items that may be narrowly relevant to my ongoing research. This isn’t about how “top” they are as much as how topical they are for me.

    Reply
  14. Michel

    Topic search: I think that used to be common practice, but back in the days before everything was online and easily searchable. (So, up until the early aughts.)

    Reply

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