In this blog, Sarah Allsop discusses the challenge of navigating how to choose and ‘match’ with your perfect publisher.
Thinking about how, when and where you are going to publish and disseminate the findings of your medical education research is an important step in your research journey. In fact, it should probably be a really early step, as consideration for how you are going to share your work can influence the type of journal or publisher that you look for.
Ask yourself right from the start,
- What is the reach of this work, what audience am I trying to communicate with?
- What is the value of this work, who will benefit from seeing the results and how can I make this most accessible to my target group?
- What do I want the impact of my work to be, who am I hoping to influence?
By considering these types of questions, it can help you to consider where you want to publish your work. You can then try to match this with the aims and objectives of selected medical education journals.
Always cross-check the aims and author guidelines of your chosen journal to check the scope matches with your manuscripts content, design and emphasis
TOP TIP
The challenge will be that if you don’t match your work to the journal or publisher, this can be a swift road to rejection – and this is hard. It doesn’t however mean that your work is not good enough to be published. In fact a rejection at a very early stage is far more likely simply to mean that you have not matched the scope of the journal. Don’t be disheartened, as there is a place for all good work to be shared.
One of the things that can really help you when thinking about how to navigate the publishing journey is to make a list of your top five journals or publications where you would most like to publish your work. To start with do this really spontaneously and go for what you really want.
Then take a step back and carefully consider and critique these choices. Does my work match the scope of this journal? Is my work likely to be written up or is written up in the style that suits the readership of the journal? Is my work realistic for this publisher? You need to be honest – for example, if a particular journal states in its aims that it only publishes international collaborative work, if you have undertaken a small single-centre study, this is unlikely to get published in that particular journal.
Revisit your list and see if there are any journals that don’t match the work. Make sure you still have 3-5 options, so that you know from the start when your next submission will be if you get rejected from the first, it not only saves time but reminds you that the process might include rejection and that’s ok.
Next take a look at the manuscript types on offer from each of the journals on your list. These can usually be found in the ‘Author Guidelines’ section. It will describe in details all of the manuscript types, which are commissioned, which are accessible to all authors. It will also highlight formatting and referencing requirements, word lengths and open access agreements. Check again that your work matches closely to one of the manuscript types listed. If it does great, if not do you need to rethink your journal list.
Hopefully, by the end of this second step you have a list of journals that firstly, publish the type of manuscript you are writing to an audience you want to reach, and secondly you now know the word count, style and formatting you need to use to move forward.
Good luck with your writing and watch out for more blogs on publishing coming soon.
You may find the list of journals written by Olle ten Cate shared in our blog on journal lists useful: BMERG Blog: Publishing in Medical Education: List of Journals.