What a new journal can and cannot promise you
We have no impact factor, no Scopus listing and a short back catalogue. Here is the honest case for submitting anyway, and when you should not.
If you are reading this you have probably found us through a search and are now doing the sensible thing: working out whether we are real. Here is what we would want to know in your position.
What we do not have
No impact factor. Journal Impact Factor is awarded by Clarivate to journals accepted into the Web of Science Core Collection, which requires a track record we do not yet have. Any new journal displaying one has either bought a lookalike metric from an unaccredited outfit or made it up.
No CiteScore. Same answer, different company: CiteScore comes from Scopus.
Not yet in DOAJ. The Directory of Open Access Journals requires either a year of publishing history or ten open access research articles before a new journal may apply. We intend to apply as soon as we qualify, and we will say so here when we do, and if we are refused, we will say that too.
A short back catalogue. You would be among the early authors, with the visibility problem that implies.
What we do have
A registered DOI on every article, so your work is citable and permanently resolvable regardless of what happens to us.
Complete indexing metadata. Google Scholar citation tags, an OAI-PMH endpoint for harvesters, structured data, and citation export in BibTeX, RIS and EndNote. These are the mechanisms by which anything gets found, and they work from the first article.
No charges, and no plans to introduce any without announcing it in advance and exempting work already submitted.
A real review process. Double anonymous, at least two reviewers for research articles, and a fast desk-screen so an out-of-scope paper is returned in days rather than held for months to reach the same conclusion.
Published dates on every article. Received and accepted, printed on the record, so our turnaround is something you can check rather than something we assert.
When you should not submit to us
If you are being assessed on journal-level metrics, a probation panel, a national research assessment that counts indexed outputs, a funder with a venue list, then submit your strongest work where it will count, and come to us with something else. We would rather say that than have you find out later.
If your work is about technology only incidentally, it will be desk-rejected, and you will have lost a fortnight.
If your work is ready and you want it read, cited and freely available without paying for the privilege, we are a reasonable bet.