Guide / Writing

How to choose the journal to publish in

You have the work finished, it took you months, and now you have to decide where to send it. That choice conditions how many people read it, who cites it and how long it takes to appear. Here are the criteria that really matter.

This is the essentials, the framework I use, not a treatise. Just enough to start well and not waste time. The detail of your own case is what we work through in mentoring.

The advice nobody follows: decide before you start

Ideally you have the journal clear before starting the work, not at the end. If you pick it at the beginning, you write with its format, length and audience in mind, and you spare yourself very typical problems. Leaving it for the end is the norm, but it is not the optimum.

The criteria that weigh

• Thematic alignment. The journal has to be related to your area. Obvious, but you have to know them: look at where your supervisor publishes, or search the title of your work in a paper search engine and notice which journals the most similar ones appear in.
• Specialist or generalist. A very specialist journal reaches few people, but the real experts in your field, who understand you, cite you and contact you. A generalist one reaches far more people, but the experts in your niche may not read it. If your work is multidisciplinary, the generalist wins.
• Audience. Decide deliberately whether you want broad or narrow reach, according to your goals.
• Impact and reach. The impact factor and the quartile matter, for better or worse, in your career. Take it into account, but not as the only criterion.