Cost-Effective Ways to Promote a Journal

Leveraging the Editorial Board Members (EBMs) EBMs are crucial for a journal's success and development, especially if it's not yet indexed by important databases. They are recognised experts with connections in their field. Scholars are more likely to trust a journal with distinguished experts on its Editorial Board. Maximising their full potential is key.

Promoting the journal: EBMs can promote the journal among their peers or at conferences. They can also help identify appropriate conferences for editors to attend.
Attracting authors and papers: EBMs can help to attract suitable expert authors. They can also directly invite colleagues to publish in the journal. EBMs can help invite high-quality papers, including Feature Papers, sometimes with offered discounts for distinguished scholars. They can provide mailing lists of experts to invite.
Suggesting content: EBMs can recommend hot research topics for Special Issues and suggest Guest Editor candidates. They can attend Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies.

Developing Successful Special Issues One good Special Issue can be better than ten bad ones. Special Issues, particularly on hot topics and managed by active Guest Editors (GEs) with good backgrounds (ideally from the EiC or EBMs), can attract quality submissions.

Involving GEs: GEs can actively help invite papers. Encouraging GEs to send out invitations is important. Maintaining a good relationship with the GE is also recommended. Cooperation between EBMs and GEs for Special Issues can lead to significant publications.

Implementing Targeted Invitation Strategies To attract high-quality papers, journals can provide discounts for submissions from distinguished scholars and recognized experts. Editorial Board members can help identify these individuals and prepare lists for invitation. Inviting famous scholars to write review papers is also a strategy to develop the journal if it's not indexed by important databases. Direct marketing activities, including soliciting manuscripts, should be appropriate, well-targeted, and unobtrusive. Information provided should be truthful.

Ensuring Efficient and Ethical Editorial Processes A well-managed infrastructure is essential to a journal’s success. While not strictly marketing, a smooth process is key to attracting and retaining authors.

Timely Peer Review: Ensuring peer review is undertaken in a timely fashion so authors do not experience undue delays is crucial. Regularly monitoring the process helps with this. Authors may consider processing time when submitting a paper.
Transparency and Ethics: Having clear policies on editorial ethics and adhering to principles of transparency and best practice builds trust. Policies should cover areas like data availability, authorship criteria, conflicts of interest, and handling misconduct/complaints. Clear information about the journal's aims, scope, and policies on a well-maintained website is fundamental.

Basic Online Presence and Promotion

For small journals, heavy investment in social media might not be recommended, but keeping platforms active with 1-5 quality posts weekly is suggested. Regular promotion activities like producing Issue Covers, Newsletters, and managing Awards are mentioned.

Awards and Recognition

Activities such as Travel Grants and Best Paper Awards can be used as marketing initiatives, often recommended by the EiC/EBMs. While these have a budget, they can be a cost-effective way to attract attention and submissions compared to other marketing channels.

These initiatives leverage the expertise and networks of the editorial team and the operational efficiency of the editorial office, offering ways to promote the journal and attract submissions without requiring significant external marketing expenditure.