This is the first blog entry in a two-part series on journal selection.
| By Ryan McGuire, Senior Research Analyst |
Evaluating the medical journal landscape is the first step toward making sure manuscripts find their way to the appropriate home. In fact, the journal selection process contains many similarities to a real estate search. The old real estate adage of location, location, location also holds true with journal selection. To ensure that a manuscript is read by the target audience it must be submitted to the correct forum.
To continue with the real estate analogy, think of therapeutic areas like neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods, like neurology and cardiology, are bigger than others and therefore contain more streets and houses. Streets represent the clinical specialty areas and indications, while houses are the individual journals. Two of the streets in the cardiology neighborhood are Hypertension Road and Thrombosis Way. The American Journal of Hypertension and Journal of Clinical Hypertension are houses located on Hypertension Road.
Pharmaceutical medical publications teams need to draw (and regularly update) their medical journal road map before determining how and where to publish. To do this the medical publications manager should be aware of the journal landscape in all of the neighborhoods important to her company’s therapeutic areas. That means learning all the potential streets where the company’s manuscripts might call home. Settling on one street for a particular manuscript is not always a cut-and-dry decision. The final decision boils down to the target audience. Is the manuscript attempting to address the educational needs of primary care physicians or specialists? Findings from a late-stage clinical trial might very well appeal equally to the entire medical community, a full therapeutic area or several clinical specialties. Choosing the correct neighborhood, and then street, in those cases can be a challenge.
On the other hand the real estate search for a manuscript containing findings from a Phase I pharmacokinetic study for endocrinology might be more limited. There might be only one street of interest — PK Lane.
So, task number one is drawing the company’s roadmap for medical journals — complete with the relevant neighborhoods and streets. The next step (which will be discussed later in this blog series) is to pick out the best house, or journal, on the block. As with all major decisions in life, it’s a good idea to have contingency options.
REPORT: Strategic Medical Publications Management (PH163)
Demonstrate medical publications' value, boost investment and meet diverse stakeholder needs for clinical and scientific information.
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