How do we decide which journal to publish?

[CaliforniaAppli]

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I am working on a retrospective review paper and don't know how to approach what journal to submit it to.

I don't think this is necessarily groundbreaking research and probably won't be shooting for the most prestigious journals , but I am lost on how to figure out what journal to send it to.

The topic is neutropenic fever which is a mix between hospital medicine/ ID/Heme.

 

[BigRedBeta]

consider which field you consider "primary" - is the review aimed at hospitalists with a focus on the basics? Does it take an infectious disease tilt midway through? Or are you trying to show something important to the H/O people?

Once you have a field narrowed, most people look for the journal with the highest impact factor (some people have very strong feelings about how this, but it at least provides a number to compare journals) and that will put the article on PubMed.

After that, if you have feelings about open access, that's the next consideration - do you have the $$$ to pay the publication fee - either through some grant/education fund money, or through an institutional discount on the cost. If you don't like open access, or lack the money, then you can ignore that.

You'll probably end up with some journals that you know are a reach and some that feel, for lack of a better term, "beneath you". Some people like to try to submit to the "reach" on the off chance that you'll catch a break. But if you are on a deadline or have other time constraints, you may choose not to waste time on a likely rejection.

 

[IM2GI]

Where does your mentor think you should submit it to?

Also, a review article is just a review, not sure whats retrospective about it unless you are doing an original research project with chart review?

 

[Goro]

I am working on a retrospective review paper and don't know how to approach what journal to submit it to.

I don't think this is necessarily groundbreaking research and probably won't be shooting for the most prestigious journals , but I am lost on how to figure out what journal to send it to.

The topic is neutropenic fever which is a mix between hospital medicine/ ID/Heme.

What audience do you want to hit? And how high in the Big Leagues do you want to go?

For the latter subject, I like to think of journals as baseball teams. Cell/Annual Reviews/Nature Reviews are the Cubs and Indians. The lower the impact factor, the lower you go, until you hit the Giants or the Mets, and then you're into AAA, AA A etc. Nothing wrong with AA ball, BTW.

Back the to audience thing. Your subject isn't my area of expertise, but you already have enumerated several different lines of spinning the story. From where I sit, it looks like an ID/Med Micro story.