Target audience

Who should read your paper, and who reads the journal you have in mind to submit to? Is it of interest to researchers across a wide field or to specialists? Is it a society journal? In which case, are its readers and authorship focused towards members, or is it more widely accessible and influential?

The aims and scope of a journal may state the readership and community the journal serves in terms of profession, occupation, academic status, industry or other applied settings beyond readers interested in producing primary research.

A journal’s geographic scope and regional focus may also play an important factor in helping decide where to submit. It may not be obvious at first what criteria the journal has in this regard.

Check what the word ‘international’ or references to regions and countries may mean in a journal title.

Some journals accept papers from all over the world focusing on any population. However, other international journals may only accept work that has global relevance and application or has been conducted by an internationally based authorship, collecting global data.

Some regional journals, those with countries or areas in their titles (such as the EASE journal, European Science Editing), may just happen to be based in those areas but accept work from anywhere in the world of broad and global interest.

Check the allowed languages for submissions. Many regional journals publish in multiple languages (including English) or even bilingually and trilingually. Depending on the discipline, many regional journals publish in English exclusively.