Match Your Manuscript to the Right Journal

After serving as an editor-in-chief for the past 4 months at a leading information technology journal, I’ve noticed a pattern that I believe is worth discussing: many researchers are submitting their work to journals that don’t align with their research focus.

A simple but effective approach to determine if a journal is the right fit for your work is to analyse where your references come from. If you’ve cited numerous articles from Journal A but none from Journal B, submitting to Journal B likely means your work falls outside their scope. Many reference management software tools can help you visualise this distribution. I have my favourites and I share this with my team when deciding to choose the right venues for publication.

Each journal has a specific scope and prioritises certain topics. When your manuscript doesn’t align with these priorities, it creates unnecessary work for everyone involved – editors must process it, reviewers must evaluate it, and ultimately, you face rejection and delayed publication.

I believe this issue stems partly from the overwhelming number of publication outlets and the understandable desire to publish in high-impact venues. However, as senior academics, we also have a responsibility to guide early-career researchers toward appropriate publication venues.

Academic peer review relies heavily on volunteer time from busy researchers. By thoughtfully selecting journals that align with your work, you show respect for this community effort. Remember that someday you may be on the other side of this process, handling submissions and providing evaluations.

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