Academic publishing, part II: Where to publish your work

Abstract

It may seem like this would be a very easy topic for the Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Neurology to address: Of course the paper should go to Annals! But in fact, the choice of journals is much more complex than that. Even when advising people in my own department or laboratory about which journal to choose to submit their work, I take into account a variety of factors, including matching the manuscript with journals that publish other papers in the same subfield, at the same level of analysis, and with the same breadth of interest. Authors are also concerned about the visibility or impact factor of the journal. And then, after submission, there is the issue of how to respond when the paper comes back for revisions. . .or worse. . . In this article, we will cover these topics. In the next segment in this series, we will take up the best way to write your paper to maximize your chances of success.