In order to successfully publish in a new journal, it can be very helpful to analyze the journal to be able to both identify if this is an appropriate journal to submit to and also tailor your article to the specific publication. This handout walks you through this process, which includes rhetorical analysis of journals and finding model articles.
Why should you perform this step?
- Journals, even those in the same field, often have very specific audiences and goals. Fully understanding those goals can help you identify:
- Whether the journal fits your article and goals
- How you can tailor your article to this journal
- Many “desk rejections” happen because you as a writer are not aligning with the expectations of the journal or the piece is not a “good fit.”
- Doing this work allows you to have a higher chance of success of gaining a “revise and resubmit” or “accept with revision”
- Identifying models that engage in similar things will assist you in your writing process in terms of wording, organization, and space dedicated to different parts of your article.
What is journal analysis?
Analyzing a journal helps you examine how the journal and specific articles within the journal communicate. In this case, we are examining not only the content but the writing strategies, structure, and style an author uses to appeal to their audience. Key questions typically include:
- Who is the intended audience?
- What is the purpose of the text?
- How are language, tone, structure, and style used to achieve this purpose?
Journal analysis helps uncover not only what is being communicated, but also why it’s communicated in that particular way. This form of analysis is useful for understanding both content and the conventions within a specific academic field.
Which journals should I analyze?
This guide assumes that you have found a list of journals to which you are considering submitting your article and that you will be performing a careful analysis of your top journal. If you are early in this process, please see the IUP Library’s guide to finding journals or speak to a reference librarian.
Step-by-Step Journal Analysis to Identify the Journal’s Purpose and Audience.
Step 1: What is the purpose, themes and overall goals of the journal?
What are the journal’s main goals? Is it focused on advancing new research, critiquing existing theories, or fostering interdisciplinary dialogue?
- Look for mission statements or “about” sections online to understand the journal’s intentions. Usually, this is on a journal’s website and/or in a mission statement published in the journal
- Once you’ve found this information, compare the purpose of this journal to your article’s intended purpose. Do they align? If the answer is “no,” consider a different journal. If the answer is “I’m not sure,” you can write and submit a query letter.
- Please see the Query Letter and Short Proposal handout for more information on how to write a query letter.
Step 2: Who is the journal’s primary audience?
Understanding and adapting to the needs of a disciplinary audience is one of the primary factors that separates a novice from an expert academic writer. Thus, understanding the audience and their expectations on a deep level can help you be more successful in publication and grow your expertise. Consider the following questions:
- Who are the readers of this journal? Are they researchers, students, or professionals? In what field and sub-field specifically? The more that you can learn about the readers—their expectations, their interests, and what they are looking for—the more you are able to tailor your article to these needs.
- Often, the audience is specified on the website. The audience is usually specified on the “about” or “mission” part of the website.
- You can also read recent articles for audience clues. Expectations of the audience often surround both how the work is introduced and also the kinds of implications and takeaways. (e.g., are we applying this information to build human knowledge and engage in basic research, or are we trying to apply it to a practical problem in some way?)
- Audience members also include “gatekeeper audiences.” These include the journal’s editors, who make the final decision about your article. They also include one to three blind peer reviewers. Blind reviewers are selected based on their expertise in an area, so it is likely that one or more people you cite may actually be your gatekeeper audience.
Step 3: What is the typical organizational structure and length of articles?
- Review the typical structure of articles within the journal, focusing on the last two to three issues of the journal to get a sense of how articles are written and structured. Consider:
- What is the overall structure? Many articles that employ empirical methods (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods) use the format known as the “scientific” or “IMRAD” format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).
- Articles may also use a different organization, prioritizing theoretical discourse, case studies, practitioner stories, or meta-analyses.
- As you are reviewing, select several model articles that may do what you want to do (in terms of the way it is structured, the way the article presents data, etc.). These models can be used effectively in order to craft your own article (see next section).
Step 4: What is the style, tone, and formality?
- Assess the journal’s language. Is it formal, accessible, or highly technical? Does it use plain language? While academic journals often feature specialized jargon, the complexity and readability can vary substantially.
- Observe the tone of the articles—are they persuasive, descriptive, or critical? Tone often reflects the journal’s disciplinary stance and reveals expectations for contributors.
- Consider if the first person is used or if writers use the third person more often.
Step 5: Consider and evaluate the use of evidence, arguments, and contribution.
- How are arguments structured in the journal’s articles? Are they supported primarily by empirical data, theoretical frameworks, or interdisciplinary approaches?
- How do authors signal their contributions and additions to the field’s knowledge? Where is this done, and with how much certainty or hedging?
- Consider how the articles cite sources and frame evidence. Do publishers within this journal rely on particular types of studies or theorists? These nuances can highlight what the journal considers legitimate and influential within its field.
- Also, note the citation format for the journal, which you will want to use as you write your article.
Step 6: What are the visual or design elements present in the journal?
- If you are planning on using visuals in your article, it can also be helpful to analyze any visual or graphic elements the journal incorporates, such as charts, tables, or figures.
- How are these elements presented? How are they discussed in the text?
Step 7: Assess the Journal’s Influence and Ethos
- Explore how the journal is regarded in its field—does it have a high impact factor, a specific ideological or methodological focus it is known for, or certain scholarly affiliations? To determine these aspects, examine where the journal is indexed, its impact metrics, or reviews within the field.
- Impact factor: Journals that are indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) or Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) receive an impact factor. This metric measures how often articles are cited from the journal in a given year. The higher the impact factor, the better. Other similar measures are CiteScore and SNIP (Sources Normalized Impact per Paper).
- Acceptance rate: Another factor that determines the preside of a journal is the journal’s acceptance rate and how “selective” it is of manuscripts. The acceptance rate is the total number of manuscripts accepted vs. those submitted. Some journals publish this publicly, while other journals do not (but an inquiry to the editors may allow you to learn it).
- An analysis by Herbert (2020)[1] of more than 2,300 journals revealed that older, larger, and higher impact factor journals have lower acceptance rates, and the average acceptance rate range was 1 to 93.2 percent and the mean was 32 percent.
- What is considered selective may differ by field.
- Consider how the journal communicates with its audience outside of formal articles, such as editorials, letters, or calls for papers. These components often provide insights into the journal’s scholarly values and relationship with its audience.
Step 8: Does the journal have any predatory qualities to be concerned about?
Take the time to ensure that this journal is a legitimate academic journal. Many predatory journals do exist, and spotting them will help you avoid them. These factors include a very fast time to publication (days or weeks), a very fast peer review process (days to weeks), errors on the website, a name similar or almost identical to a legitimate journal, and a publication fee.
- More on predatory journals can be found in our predatory journal handout.
Model Articles
The above process should yield two to three model articles that you can use to write your own article. Model articles are those that offer you some additional insights on how to write your own article and may be similar in structure, content, or approach. You can continue to analyze these and use them as a roadmap for your own article with the following suggestions:
- Look at the overall organization: headings, subheadings, and how the piece is organized.
- Look at how the argument is structured and how the authors position themselves in relationship to previous and current scholarship (for more on arguments, see our Scholarly Arguments handout).
- Look at the word count and how much space each section dedicates to the article. You can use this for guides for how much space to dedicate to each different section.
- Look at how contributions are signaled (see our Significance and Contributions handout).
With all of the above, you will be ready to write and revise your article for publication!
[1] Herbert, Rachel, Accept Me, Accept Me Not: What Do Journal Acceptance Rates Really Mean? (February 15, 2020). International Center for the Study of Research Paper No. Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3526365 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3526365