Journal selection is a very subjective business. While you might not know this, you are actually the expert in where the best place to publish is.
In your literature review you will probably have identified a number of journals that are relevant to your research. This would be your starting point. If you have found these relevant than others reading your research are likely to find them relevant.
Other tools you can use to narrow down your search for appropriate Journals are
More information about these can be found in the boxes on this page.
Target appropriate journals that are read and respected by everyone in your discipline. You might want to take a look at your own reference list and identify journals that commonly appear.
The scope of the journal is probably the most important consideration when you are trying to decide on which journal to target for your journal article. It is obviously very important to choose a journal that is interested in the type of research that the you wish to publish.
Other considerations include the members of the editorial board, the peer-review system the journal operates and the average waiting time from submission to publication.
You should also consult with colleagues and investigate what journals your peers are publishing in, before selecting a journal to submit your article to.
Impact factor metrics are a useful guide to help authors to select high impact journals in their field (see the Journal Metrics Libguide for more information).
Information reused from Edanz's Tips for Selecting A Journal (Infographic) licensed under Creative Commons Share Alike 4.0 
Once you have completed your research and have it ready for publication there are a couple of steps you can take to ensure it has the greatest impact. Publish your research in journals that have a high impact. Use journal rankings to establish the top performers in your research field and submit your research to them. It should be noted that ranking information should always be combined with judgments based on a researcher’s own expert knowledge, e.g. the credentials of the editorial board and a reading of the journal's statement of scope.
The image below from Scimago shows a comparison of selected journals based on the SJR ranking.
More information on Rankings is available on the Journal Metrics Page.
There are a number of different online tools that will suggest possible journals to submit an article to based on the abstract, title and/or keywords.
EndNote Online Manuscript Matcher: In EndNote Online use the “Match” tab to find suitable Web of Science journals for the title and abstract of your manuscript. The Journal Impact Factor and quartile(s) of each journal suggested are displayed along with links to similar articles from that journal (see http://endnote.com/product-details/manuscript-matcher and https://libguides.ul.ie/referencing-endnote/endnote-online).
JANE (Journal/Author Name Estimator): This tool only includes journals indexed in Medline (biomedicine, health and life sciences journals).
Every journal has its own unique process for accepting, reviewing, and potentially publishing articles in their publication. Unfortunately, the most prestigious journals also typically have the longest periods of time between submission and publication, some over a year. Please keep this in mind when selecting what journal you may want to publish in.
Approximate turnaround times for different journals can be looked up at the following free online website: https://www.journalguide.com/
Image source: Diana Bowler. "How to Write for and Get Published in Scientific Journals - Edanz1905..." SlideShare. Edanz Group, 18 May 2011. Web. 09 Aug. 2017.
Open access (OA) journals in every discipline are making gains in popularity and impact.
Authors must evaluate OA journals for impact as they would any other journal. The key point to keep in mind regarding OA journals is that they typically charge a publication fee ranging from €400 to €3000. OA advocates argue that this is a reasonable price to pay to allow your work to be available to scholars around the world without having to go through a pay wall.
The Library has a number of agreements with large publishers that allow you to publish Open Access in Journals free of charge. More information about this can be found in our Open Access Publishing Libguide.
When building a publishing track record it is important to avoid publishing in journals or through book publishers who display unethical practices, such as falsely claiming that your work will be peer reviewed, or displaying fictitious impact factors. these publishers are colloquially known as 'Predatory Publishers'
Predatory publishers take advantage of the open access publishing model and the current pressure on academics to publish. Predatory publishers pretend to be credible Open Access publishers (either imitating well-known publishers or creating their own publishing platform).
They usually target academics looking to submit articles to journals by imitating journal publishers (often known as 'fake journals'), but they can also pretend to be book publishers.
They send emails to academics asking for submissions and promise a rapid peer review process. The peer review process is rapid because it typically does not happen at all. Predatory publishers usually publish everything they receive, which some academics have taken advantage of to expose them, e.g. the famous star wars paper.
In recent years the number of predatory publishers has grown and developing strategies to identify them and avoid publishing with them is important for all researchers.
See the Predatory Publishing Libguide for more information on avoiding Predatory Publishers and check out the video from Think Check Submit
which helps researchers identify trusted journals for their research.