Before starting the process of identifying potential journals, be sure to articulate your publishing goals and any funder mandates that you need to adhere to. The following questions can help guide you:
- What audience are you trying to reach with your publication? (Are you targeting authors in a small or niche field of research? Are you targeting a wider, more interdisciplinary audience?)
- Is your manuscript a review article, original research, theoretical, or applied?
- Do you need to publish in a "gateway" or highly ranked journal in your field for career advancement purposes?
- Are you hoping to reach a wide audience with your journal and thinking about open access publishing?
- Do you have any funding associated with the forthcoming publication where you'll need to consider funder mandates such as public access requirements?
- Do you plan to post your pre-print, share your data, or your post-print? (If answering yes to these, you'll need to carefully check the journal and publisher copyright, open access, and author re-use policies.)
- Do you have a timeline for when you'd like to publish your research?