Making Your New Academic Journal Discoverable: Reaching the Scholarly Community

Growing a new academic journal and increasing its visibility requires a multi-faceted approach, focusing on quality, accessibility, and strategic promotion. As Editor-in-Chief, your actions are pivotal in making the journal discoverable to the broadest possible audience in the scholarly community. Drawing on the provided sources and our conversation history, here's a breakdown of key strategies:


1. Ensure a Strong, Transparent, and Accessible Online Presence

  • The journal's website is the public-facing statement of ethical practices and should adhere to high professional standards.
  • Websites should be properly supported and maintained, with attention given to security aspects, using HTTPS as a minimum.
  • The website and/or publisher website must clearly show the journal's policies and other required information.
  • Journal guidelines and processes must be transparent.
  • Adhering to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing is fundamental. This includes having clear policies on editorial processes, peer review, authorship, conflicts of interest, data availability, ethical oversight, copyright, licensing, and advertising.
  • If any practices deviate from the outlined standards, they must be transparently communicated.

2. Focus on Publishing High-Quality and Relevant Content

  • As the editor, you are responsible for everything published and should take reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material.
  • Decisions to accept or reject a paper should be based only on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s relevance to the remit of the journal. Ensure the manuscript is within the journal's scope.
  • Maintaining the study's relevance to the journal's aims and standards is important.
  • For new journals, consistent output with high quality is important. Regularly estimate the journal's monthly publication number and take timely action to manage papers through the review process.

3. Build and Actively Engage the Editorial Board

  • Building a solid Editorial Board is fundamental. Board members should meet specific scholarly criteria, such as h-index.
  • Scholars may trust a journal more when distinguished scholars and recognized experts are on the Editorial Board.
  • Maximize the full potential of the journal’s EiC and EBMs. Encourage them to contribute.
  • Ask for the EiC and EBMs’ help to invite high-quality feature papers and recommend other EBMs, Guest Editors, and authors.
  • EBMs can help to attract suitable expert authors and help recruit prominent scholars.
  • EBMs can also promote the journal among their peers or at conferences. They can recommend appropriate conferences for editors to attend.

4. Implement Strategic Content Initiatives, Such as Special Issues

  • A good Special Issue (SI) can significantly benefit the journal.
  • Successful SIs are based on hot topics with a decent scope and active Guest Editors with good backgrounds (e.g., from the EiC/EBMs).
  • Encourage GEs to send out invitations.
  • Encourage EBMs to set up or contribute to Special Issues. This can lead to increased publications.
  • Focusing on hot/highly cited topics is important, particularly for indexing considerations.

5. Pursue Indexing in Major Databases

  • Getting the journal indexed by major databases (like Web of Science SCIE/SSCI, ESCI, Scopus, EI) should be a goal. Let the EiC and EBMs know these goals.
  • Understand the indexing criteria. Quality criteria include having an ISSN, a clear journal name, a proper website, content access, a peer review policy, contact details, scholarly content, clarity of language, publication volume/timeliness, website functionality, presence of ethics statements, Editorial Board composition, and author affiliation details.
  • Impact criteria for indexing include comparative citation analysis, author citation analysis, Editorial Board citation analysis, and content significance.
  • Citation activity is important for SCIE/SSCI indexing. Attract papers of good quality, hot papers, and papers from distinguished researchers to aid in indexing.
  • Checklisting criteria like being indexed in the ISSN portal and whether papers are archived in recognized databases are relevant for trusted journals.

6. Engage in Targeted Marketing and Promotion

  • Focus on core marketing activities.
  • Conduct regular promotion using issue covers, newsletters, and awards (such as Travel Grants and Best Paper Awards).
  • Attend conferences recommended by EiCs/EBMs. Leading a booth or sponsoring paid conferences and seeking joint booth opportunities are recommended activities to enhance communication.
  • Any direct marketing activities, including soliciting manuscripts, should be appropriate, well-targeted, and unobtrusive. Information provided should be truthful and not misleading.

7. Consider Open Access

  • The market analysis suggests there is a high demand for Open Access and a low availability of OA journals in certain categories.
  • Being an Open Access journal can increase accessibility.
  • Membership in organizations like DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association) signals adherence to OA principles and standards, which can enhance credibility and discoverability. DOAJ indexes high-quality, peer-reviewed OA journals.

By implementing these strategies, focusing on both the internal quality and ethical practices of the journal and external promotion and adherence to industry standards, a new academic journal can significantly increase its visibility and reach a broader scholarly audience.

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