Selecting the right journal for your submission
From the CHEST Editorial Office, American College of Chest Physicians, Northbrook, IL, USA
Medical Writing
Selecting the right journal for your submission
From the CHEST Editorial Office, American College of Chest Physicians, Northbrook, IL, USA
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Abstract
Increasing pressure on researchers and academic clinicians to publish high volumes of work in highly visible publication outlets means that authors must have a finely tuned, efficient process for submission. One of the key decisions every author
must make is where to submit their paper. This article addresses several important components to making that decision,
including (I) topic match; (II) acceptance/rejection rate of the journal; (III) speed of review/publication; (IV) distribution
of and access to the journal; and (V) impact factor.
Key words
Submission; selecting journal; process
J Thorac Dis 2012;4(3):336-338. DOI: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.05.06 |
Introduction
“Publish or perish.” This is an adage we hear quite frequently, and
is one that rings true for many academic and clinical researchers.
Career foundations are laid, promotions are garnered, and
tenure is achieved in part by having a long list of publications in
prestigious journals in one’s curriculum vitae.
Most authors put their heart and souls into their journal
submissions, painstakingly preparing a manuscript that
accurately communicates their thought-process, including
a thoughtful introduction describing the problem, detailed
methods of testing their subject(s), thorough results reporting,
and conclusions that justify their hard work.
But what happens next? Once the paper is written, an equally
painstaking process should be undertaken to decide where to
submit the paper. There are innumerable things that an author
can consider when deciding where to submit their paper. In
this article, I will focus on the following 5 aspects to consider
when deciding where to submit: (I) Topic and article match -
does the journal’s published content match up to the topic and
article type of your paper? (II) Acceptance/rejection rate of the
journal - how likely is your paper to be accepted? (III) Speed of
review/publication - how quickly will your paper be reviewed,
and if accepted, published? (IV) Distribution of and access to
the journal - is the journal widely discoverable and accessible by
interested readers? (V) Impact factor - how important is this for
you and your coauthors? |
Identifying a list of potential journals
The first question authors may consider is how to identify a short
list of journals to consider. It’s important to have more than one
journal in mind, because if a manuscript is not accepted by the
first journal it is sent to, the authors should be able to quickly
rework the paper for a second (or third) journal. Just remember,
do not submit your paper to more than one journal at a time.
Journals have policies against this, and failure to comply with
that request can result in being banned from submission in the
future.
A couple of ways to identify journals of interest include doing
a PubMed search for Index Medicus listed journals, or accessing
a list of journals in the Institute of Scientific Information’s
Journal Citation Reports, the list that provides Impact Factor
data and rankings for journals. The Journal Citation Reports are
segregated by topic area, so that can be an easy way to find a list
of relevant journals to choose from. |
Topic match
So as you are considering the list of journals to submit to, one
of the first things to look at is the type of content published by
the journal. Does the subject matter match your own? Although
this may seem obvious, journal titles can be vague and may not
always accurately reflect the range and types of content that the
journal publishes. And over time the percentages of content
published in particular areas can change. For example, is the
journal’s focus clinical or basic research, or both? How much content is the journal currently publishing in the area that your
paper focuses on? For example, if you are writing an article about
pneumonia, how often does the journal publish pneumonia
or content related to lung infections? Is there a specific section
that might be applicable for your submission and enhance the
appeal of your article? Or another example is, if you are writing
a review article, it’s worth researching the journal to find out
how many reviews it publishes each issue or per year, so you can
better gauge the likelihood that your paper will be relevant and
published in a reasonably timely manner. |
Acceptance/rejection rate of the journal
As you consider submitting to any journal, it’s very important
to know the numbers of how many papers a journal receives in
a year, and how many of those papers are accepted or rejected.
Most top-tier journals accept less than 10% of the articles
submitted. So, unfortunately, the odds are already against
being accepted in one of those. However, many smaller or less
established journals may accept a large percentage of the papers
submitted to them because they are trying to make a name for
themselves. Of course every medical researcher would love to
be published in NEJM, or Lancet, or JAMA, or BMJ, but those
are extremely difficult journals to be accepted into, and so being
realistic about the possibility of your paper being accepted is
crucial.
Similarly, the number of papers a journal publishers per year is
also a factor to consider - is the journal a small, quarterly journal
that only publishes 10 or 12 articles per issue, or is it a large
monthly journal that publishes 50 or more articles per issue? It’s
important to find out from the journal what these numbers are,
so that you can make an informed decision about the journal you
are submitting your research to. |
Speed of peer review, decisions, and publication
Timeliness of the journal’s processes are important to assess,
because they will impact the author’s submission and publication
process. Before submitting to a journal, find out what is (I) the
average time from submission to first decision; (II) the average
time for 2nd round of review (very few manuscripts are accepted
without at least some level of revision by the authors); and
importantly, (III) time from acceptance to publication. The
longer these processes take, the longer it will take for the authors
to realize and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Item 2 above, time for the 2nd round of review, is often
dictated by the authors. If you have a paper that requires revision
and resubmission, the faster you and your coauthors make the
revisions and resubmit, the faster you will know if your paper
will be accepted or not. In that situation, you are the master of
your own fate to some degree.
Item 3 above is also important because some journals may
post recently accepted papers online before they appear in a
future issue. Find out if this is a service the journal provides,
as it allows an accepted paper to be “found” in the literature
much faster than in the past, when a paper was only considered
“published” when it appeared in a print issue. If there is no such
online first option, find out how long the backlog of accepted
papers is - some journals may have a backlog of up to one year,
which means a long time before the authors receive recognition
for what they have accomplished. |
Distribution of and access to the journal
Of course, any submission to a journal is done with the hope
and expectation of acceptance and publication. One of the next
logical questions is, how many potential people will see my
research if I am published in Journal X?
There are a number of ways that journal content can be
distributed and made discoverable. Journals are typically
distributed in print and/or online to individual and institutional
subscribers. If published by a professional society, it may also
be provided to members of that society. In addition, a journal
may be indexed in various literature databases, such as PubMed
and others, and ideally indexed in major search engines, such as
Google. All of these things ensure that the author’s research will
be widely distributed and discoverable. Authors may wish to
compare potential journals’ print circulation and online visitor
statistics before submitting.
There are other things to consider if an author wants to
maximize their opportunities to have their research or paper
discovered by others. For example, does the journal engage in
active public relations campaigns to make medical journalists or
news outlets aware of their regular publications? Do they actively
participate in social media efforts such as building awareness
about publications through Twitter, Facebook, or other
platforms?
Finally, it’s important to consider how freely accessible (or
not) is the content of the journal. When content is published
online, are abstracts freely available immediately? How long
after publication are readers given free access to the full content?
Most traditional journals make content free to view after 6
to 12 months. However, open access movements are gaining
popularity with authors, funding agencies, and librarians.
Authors may wish to target open access journals - if they have
grant funding to support such endeavors as most open access
journals charge authors or their funders for open access. Which
brings us to another important point: some journals charge
publication page charges or other charges (such as for peer
review or for publication of color figures). Be sure to find out in
advance if the journal you want to publish in has such fees, and
be sure you have the budget to pay for them.
And when considering accessibility of the content, authors
should also be aware of their own rights to the content once the
manuscript has been accepted and published. Most journals
require that authors assign ownership and copyright of the
material to the journal, although the level of ownership varies
from journal to journal. Some of the larger and more visible
journals, as well as those published by commercial publishing
houses, often retain all rights, whereas others may provide
certain rights to authors for using the work in professional
environments. Authors should do the due diligence to find out
the policies of the journals prior to submitting their work. |
Impact factor
One of the most highly touted and widely used criterion for
choosing a journal is the journal’s Impact Factor. Unfortunately,
it is also one of the most misunderstood metrics and one of
the most widely debated. Only the authors can determine how
important the journal’s Impact Factor is when making their list of
potential journals to submit to. Depending on how the author’s
institution views the Impact Factor, the author’s career path,
promotion, and other aspects of their professional reputation
may be heavily tied to the Impact Factor of the journals they are
published in. However, Impact Factors will rise and fall from
year to year, so it’s important to have some historical perspective
on the trend of the journals you are considering. Is the Impact
Factor going up or going down over the past several years? |
Parting thoughts
There are numerous factors to consider when selecting a short list
of journals where you wish to submit research or original papers.
Because publishing is competitive, be sure to review the criteria
discussed in this article. Have more then one journal identified
in case your paper is rejected by your first or second choice. If
your paper is rejected, don’t take the rejection personally. Simply
consider it as an opportunity to improve the paper and submit to
another journal. Good luck with your submissions! |
Acknowledgements
Disclosure: The author declares no conflict of interest.
Cite this article as: Welch SJ. Selecting the right journal for your submission.
J Thorac Dis 2012;4(3):336-338. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.05.06
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