Hi.
This is Karen McKee, retired scientist and author with another writing video.
Many first-time authors write a paper for publication in an academic journal but are
not sure where to submit it.
Which journals should you consider and how do you pick the right one?
Considering that there are thousands of journals out there, this decision can seem daunting,
especially to a first-time author.
In this video, I explain how to go about choosing an appropriate journal for your paper.
The first step is to compile a preliminary list of journals that might be appropriate
for your paper.
One option is to look at the literature cited in your manuscript and where those papers
were published.
You can also conduct a search for papers in your field by using keywords from your research
topic and note the journals in which they were published.
This should give you a good list to start with.
You’ll likely have a mix of general interest journals with a wide readership and specialty
journals with a smaller audience.
If your paper addresses a topic of broad interest, then you want to consider general interest
journals, depending on other factors which I’ll get to in a moment.
If your paper, on the other hand, is highly technical and likely to be of interest only
to specialists in the field, you should prioritize specialty journals.
Next, you want to check each journal’s requirements.
Carefully read the aims and scope of each journal to make sure your paper fits.
Mismatch between the topic of a submitted paper and the journal’s aim and scope is
one of the most common reasons for rejection.
Often, the journal will provide examples of appropriate topics such as shown here.
In addition, you want to make sure the journal accepts your type of article, which might
be an original research paper, a methods paper, a review paper, or a brief note.
Usually, journals list the types of articles they will consider as shown here.
If not, you can always inquire.
You also want to make sure you can meet other journal requirements such as page charges
or word limit.
For example, if you have an 16,000 word monograph, it will likely be rejected by a journal with
an 8,000 word limit.
At this point, you’ve hopefully narrowed the choices down to a handful of journals.
You should now scan the articles in each journal and decide if your paper will fit in.
The question you should be asking yourself is whether the quality of your paper is at
least as high as those recently published in the journal.
Here, you should be looking at the relative importance of the questions addressed in the
work, the rigor of the study, and the quality of the writing.
Making this comparison is likely difficult for a new author.
If you are uncertain about the relative quality of your paper, ask someone with experience
to assess your paper.
A final consideration is the journal impact factor.
Publishing in a journal with a high impact factor can influence the visibility of your
paper and that is something to be aware of.
The journal’s impact factor will also help tell you how high the bar will be when your
paper is evaluated by the editors and reviewers.
Keep in mind that the journals with the highest impact factors reject eighty to ninety percent
of submissions.
Consequently, picking the journal with the highest impact factor is not always a good
idea or even necessary to get your paper noticed.
Sometimes it's better to pick a lower-impact, specialty journal with a readership that is
more likely to be interested in your paper.
I should also mention that choosing a journal early in the writing process will save you
time and effort in the longrun.
How you structure the narrative, not to mention the formatting, will often vary with the journal.
Having a specific journal in mind from the beginning will help you tailor your paper
for their target audience.
A final caution is to make sure the journal you select is reputable.
Check that it is indexed by major platforms such as Web of Science or PubMed and that
the editorial board is composed of reputable people.
Choosing the right journal is not an easy process.
Sometimes you'll make a mistake, and your paper gets rejected.
If so, reassess your choices and resubmit.
I hope these tips will help you and thanks for watching.