Scientific publishing in biomedicine: How to choose a journal?

Abstract

Publishing in peer-reviewed high-quality journals is a gold standard method for disseminating scientific work. Choosing the right journal is one of the most important and difficult aspects of publishing research results. Submitting to an inappropriate journal is one of the most common reasons for fast rejection of manuscripts, resulting in time wasted by the authors and journals' editors. Here, we discuss important factors that should be considered for choosing the right journal to get your work published successfully and effectively. The most important factors for journal targeting are: (1) The journal's characteristics, including its scientific prestige, performance, publishing model, acceptance possibility, and specialty; (2) the manuscript's characteristics, including its relevance to the journal's aim and scope, its intrinsic value, meaning the novelty of the research, soundness of the methodology, potential impact in the field, and its implication; and (3) authors' priorities and limitations.