Choose Your Stage (aka Journal) Wisely!
Hello Qualitative Mind,
My decision and journey to build an online business parallel to, yet outside of, academia felt lonely at first. It’s not a common career path post PhD, and when I first started Quali Q I didn’t know any other online entrepreneurs who had successfully done it. That started to change when I met Dr. Cathy Mazak through a prospective client and colleague.
Cathy is an academic writing coach for womxn who also happens to be a full professor and successful online entrepreneur. She is the host of the “I Should Be Writing...” private Facebook group (with more than 15,000 members) and the podcast Academic Womxn Amplified. I reached out to Cathy back in April 2020, and since then she has become a mentor to me and, in many ways, enabled my work and success with Quali Q. Needless to say, I follow Cathy’s work and podcast closely. On September 29th, 2020 she released podcast episode #48 –“Your Top 5 Questions About Academic Publishing Answered” –and let me tell you, it’s gold! Cathy coaches womxn from all areas of research and, for that reason, her comments and suggestions weren’t focused on publishing qualitative health research. That’s where I got the idea to build on a couple of the questions she answered, and write two blog posts about publishing qualitative health research. Today’s blog post will be about choosing a journal for your qualitative work, and next week’s will focus on how to respond to reviewers’ comments.
So let’s get your show (i.e., research findings) on the road (i.e., publishing) by choosing your stage (i.e., journal) wisely!
I think we need to start by acknowledging that publishing qualitative health research is different than publishing quantitative health research. This point will become evident as we discuss how you need to consider the next three steps when choosing where you’ll be submitting your qualitative research for publication.
1. Note the references you read, cherish and use when writing your own manuscript.
I bet you might already do this, even if you never paid attention to the action before! When you start creating a list of potential journals for your qualitative work, take note of where your reading “staples” are published, especially if they’re also reporting qualitative health research. If that doesn’t give you enough ideas, look at the reference list of your key readings and add more possibilities to your list. From here, move to step #2.
2. Read the journal description and delve into the journal submission guidelines.
This step is key! When you read what your journal of interest is about, you’re gaining insights into their openness and overall position towards qualitative research. Sometimes, journals address this openly and directly, but sometimes they don’t. It’s up to us, qualitative researchers, to understand the type of research they’re describing as their focus and whether or not our work fits there. This can be tricky yet made easier by the submission guidelines. When you read journals’ submission guidelines, you learn the word limit and overall structure suggested for articles. Sometimes these pieces speak volumes about whether the journal is a good fit for qualitative health research or not. Journals with word limits of 3000 or less are not my first, second or third choices because I like to include participants’ quotes integrated into my results (rather than in a table), and that word limit is almost impossible to achieve when writing qualitative findings.
3. Define what impact means to you.
In many (not to say most) academic circles, a journal’s impact factor is a key measure of impact. However, I think impact factor is one of many factors to consider when defining the desired impact you want to achieve with your qualitative health research. You need to consider your field, and where your research findings are more likely to reach an audience that will benefit from reading and learning about your qualitative work. This moves beyond solely looking at impact factor, and includes considering open access journals that might be more readily accessible by communities outside academia. My PhD research was conducted following the principles of Community-Based Participatory Research, and one of my mandates was to publish in journals that could be readily available to community members and stakeholders. Yes, I know community members are unlikely to ever search or read my research results. Yet, the community-based organizations have used the papers to apply for grants, and make their case for additional funding requests. That’s my definition of impact. What is yours?
I hope these three steps help you choose your list of desired journals for publication wisely and strategically. Keep in mind that your show needs to be taken on the road. There is value in your work, dedication and, above all, in your participants’ voices and stories!
Talk soon,
Maira