Hvordan finne fram til riktig tidsskrift?

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– Muligens er det ingen strategier som er viktigere for å bli publisert i internasjonale tidsskrifter, enn å foreta en tidsskriftsanalyse, skriver Natalie Reid i boka Getting Published in International Journals: Writing Strategies for European Social Scientists.

Hun lister opp disse spørsmålene som du bør finne svar på før du bestemmer hvilket tidsskrift du ønsker å sende inn en artikkel til:

• Are the articles in the journal primarily qualitative or quantitative? That is, do the articles a) mainly discuss theoretical issues, develop or compare different theoretical approaches, or attempt to synthesize different theories, or b) mainly present and analyze empirical material (data)?

If the answer is a), you need ask no further. But if the answer is b), and the articles mainly present and analyze empirical material, you need to ask a corollary question:

Is this published material primarily quantitative (statistics) or qualitative (descriptions, stories, quotes from interviews or newspapers, etc.)? To which of these categories does your article belong?

• Does the proportion of theory to data in your paper fit the average proportion in the journal? (The same question applies to the average number of graphs and tables.)
   
• What  is the journal’s primary focus? That is, is it focused more on the subject matter (e.g., Journal of Labour Market Affairs, Journal of Industrial Relations) or on the discipline itself (e.g., American Journal of Sociology, British Journal of Anthropology)?
   
• Does the journal usually take papers focusing on a small question (highly focused and concentrated papers) or a large question (broader, more general papers)?
   
• Has the journal published a similar paper in the past two years? If so, is it likely to publish another one soon?

Some journals return regularly to certain subjects, while other journals do not. A corollary question is the following:

Does your paper amplify, contradict, or rebut either findings or theorizing in a paper that the journal has published within the past year or two?

• Has the journal published a paper about your region (e.g., Baltic, Iberian, Benelux) in the past two years? If so, does your paper tie your country’s data into much larger EU or world issues? In other words, are you able to make comparisons between your country’s data and those of other countries?
   
• Where are most of the authors from – what countries, what universities? If your country is underrepresented, does that mean your paper has a better or worse chance of being published?

A corollary question is:

Does the journal take many articles from your region of Europe – or even from scholars or researchers attached to, say, non-British universities?

• Study the references and citations in the published articles: are they from all over the world or from a specific country – or from specific theorists?

A corollary question concerns the references you use:

Will your paper, if it involves research in your country alone, cite mostly national and regional references (e.g., from Spain or Portugal)?

• Does your paper have the depth of content, and do you have the sophistication of writing style, to match the papers that the journal publishes?
   
• If you are using statistical analyses such as regression analyses, factor analyses, principal component analyses, or cluster analyses, to what extent does the journal publish articles with similar types of analyses?

Referanse:
Reid, Natalie (2010): Getting Published in International Journals: Writing Strategies for European Social Scientists. Oslo: NOVA, s. 211-213.