Where should I publish my first academic article?

(This is the first of a series of blog posts for newer academic writers. In the next post, I’ll discuss when to publish in an edited collection.)

I recently visited the proseminar for my department’s PhD students. I was there to discuss some of my articles as well as my writing and publishing process. My goal for this annual visit is always to demystify academic writing and publishing as much as possible.

 During the discussion, one student asked how to pick a journal for his first peer-reviewed publication, especially if he was nervous about getting started. As opposed to going for the top journal that covers the whole discipline (in my case, PMLA or JCMS), I suggested using some narrowing guidelines to pick a niche that felt manageable. In the case of literary studies this could be by genre, by national literature, by time period, and/or by author or the author’s background. My reasoning was that by narrowing into a smaller niche, it becomes easier for a younger academic author to get a handle on framing up a literature review and scholarly intervention.

 However, when I polled colleagues on Twitter to see what they might say, someone brought up a very good counterpoint: namely, that one should start with a very ambitious target journal because this will lead to good readers reports and the opportunity to revise well for another journal if the article gets rejected. 

I see the merit of this approach as well. 

The tricky thing about giving advice on academic writing questions such as where should I publish my first article is that, as with most advice, it depends.

 In the case of choosing an academic journal for publication, a number of factors are worth considering, including any of the following:

·      What journals do you read? Chances are, these journals contain the scholars with whom your work is in conversation.

·      How much time do you have? If you are trying to go on the job market and want to get another line on your cv, you may not have time to go through the peer review process at more than one or two journals.

·      Is this going to be a signature article for you? Sometimes we write a piece and we know that it’s going to be very important. Maybe it perfectly characterizes your research. Maybe it’s timely and needs a wide audience. Maybe it feels like the culmination of something. These can be reasons to seek a top journal.

·      What’s the scope of your intervention? Sometimes our arguments and research are important to a small group. That’s okay. If others working in subfield will be excited to hear about your discovery but it’s hard to scale up the significance of your argument, you might choose to go with a more specialized journal.

·      Are you having a hard time imagining an audience or framing your intervention? Newer scholars often struggle with reining in a literature review. Picking a journal that’s in a niche can help establish the guidelines and framework for situating yourself relative to the literature.

·      Is there a special issue that might put your article into conversation with others working in a similar line of research?

These are just a handful of considerations newer academic writers might consider when picking a target journal. I’d be curious to hear what other considerations you follow or recommend.

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