Choose your journal based on evidence, not your gut!

Often when I speak with researchers, I'm always very curious about their publishing strategies. Therefore, a common question I ask is, "How did you choose that journal?"

Common responses I often hear are, "It seemed like a good journal", "It has a high impact factor", or "It's a prominent journal in my field".

Does this sound familiar?

That tells me that many researchers choose a journal because of the journal's name or IF, not because it's the best platform for the researcher to have impact and influence in the field.

Therefore, in my workshops, I have developed a useful evidence-based strategy to help researchers be more pragmatic when choosing a journal to publish their hard-earned research.

Evidence? Yes, evidence. Every decision made in research is based on evidence. For example, when you choose a technique to conduct an experiment, you choose it because it is the most appropriate technique to help you to achieve the goals of that experiment. You don't choose a technique simply because it's a popular technique or has a fancy name. Why should choosing a journal be any different?

Before I go any further, let me say an essential element of this strategy is first identifying your target audience. Who do you think will really benefit from reading your article? Researchers globally or regionally (international vs. regional journals)? Researchers only in your specific research area or also those in other research areas or disciplines (specialized vs. broad-focused journals)? Those only in academia or also those outside of academia, such as industry or policymakers (subscription vs open access journals)? Keeping your target readers in mind is core to using this strategy successfully

The strategy I have developed is simple and can be used across all research disciplines. It comprises two steps:

1. Generate a shortlist of potential journals
2. Evaluate those journals based on evidence

Step 1 - Generate a Shortlist. Let's discuss the first step first, which is the easier one as well. From the thousands of potential journals to choose from, narrow this down to 12-15 potential journals. You can do this quickly by evaluating the journals that you frequently read related to your study, discussing with co-authors and colleagues, and evaluating online databases like Web of Science, Scopus, or online journal selection tools like JournalGuide.

Step 2 - Evidence-based Sorting Strategy. Now that you have your journals, list them initially in the order you feel makes the most sense, with your top choices at the top of the list. Now, go through and evaluate each journal (one at a time, preferably with a colleague to be more objective in your analysis) on five key factors and do one of three options:

• If the journal looks good according to that factor, elevate its position on your shortlist (e.g., position 6 to position 3).
• If the journal looks not so good for that factor, downgrade its position (e.g., position 3 to position 5).
• If the journal does not look appropriate at all, then remove it from the shortlist.

So, what you are doing is sorting the more appropriate journals (based on evidence, not the journal's name) to the top of the list, while sorting the less appropriate journals to the bottom. By the time you are done evaluating all five factors, you can now feel confident that the journals at the top of the list are the most appropriate journals for your current study.

What are the five key factors should you consider? I would recommend the following:

• Aims and Scope. This is written by the journal editor to tell you what they are interested in publishing in their journal. If you want to get inside the editor's mind, this is one of the best ways to do so! Ensure they are interested in the topic of your study and that the study design and article type are appropriate for their journal.
• Recently published articles. Go to the journal's website, and using keywords related to your study, check how many articles (original or review) they have published in the last 2 years. If they have published several articles on your topic, that tells you that they are currently interested in publishing research like yours (elevate that journal!). But if they have not, that tells you that your topic may not be a priority for the journal (and consider downgrading the journal). Another benefit of this step is to review recently published articles in that journal and identify what is unique or novel about your study. You will want to highlight that novelty in your cover letter to the journal so that your manuscript does not look redundant with what they have already published.
• Indexing. You need to be sure that you publish in a journal that is indexed by databases used by researchers in your field. If it is not, your article will not be visible to your target audience, and I would recommend removing those journals from consideration. The more databases, the better! In other words, I would elevate a journal indexed in SCI-E, Scopus, and MEDLINE more spots than a journal only indexed in SCI-E and MEDLINE.
• Publication model. Should you choose Open Access? Probably. It has more accessibility to researchers worldwide (both developed and developing countries) as well as to those outside of academia that generally don't have subscriptions to a lot of academic journals. Always keep your target audience in mind when choosing a journal! If the article processing fee (APC) is too high, you can always consider asking publishers to reduce the fee, called an APC waiver, that publishers (not journals!) consider on a case-by-case basis. Most publishers do have automatic waivers, however, for researchers in emerging markets.
• Journal selectivity. High impact journals (e.g., those in the first quartile, Q1, in their field) generally have higher rejection rates than lower-ranked journals. They are looking for more significant advances and more impactful influence on the field or more broadly for society (i.e., ripple effects). So, if you don't have really significant results or immediate impact in the field, Q1 journals may be less interested in your submitted manuscript. You need to be realistic when choosing a journal. Look at recently published articles in that journal that are similar in scope to your research and assess if you think the significance and impact of those papers is similar to yours. If so, great. If not, you probably want to downgrade that journal as it's not a realistic option for you. Please note that I recommend evaluating the quartile ranking of the journal to assess selectivity, not Impact Factor. The IF is an arbitrary number that doesn't tell you much about the positioning of that journal in the field; the quartile ranking does.

So, after this second step in this evidence-based sorting strategy, you should now feel more confident that those journals at the top of your list are the best and most appropriate choices for you to have impact and establish your reputation in the field.

Good luck!