Where you publish will affect who can read your work
Who do you want to reach?
- clinicians or faculty
- Typically get access to journals via the institutions with which they work or with which they are members.
- Check Ulrichsweb to see whether the most-used databases like CINAHL, PubMed, or other EBSCO databases, hold your journal
- However, not all clinicians work at institutions that pay for journal subscriptions. If you publish in a journal that places their articles behind a paywall, you may not be able to reach absolutely all professionals.
- practitioners at non-profits or non-governmental organizations
- very few practitioners employed for smaller organizations will have access to institutional or personal journal subscriptions, and journal paywalls will be a real barrier keeping them from accessing your work
What if you don't know who your audience is?
Think about:
- who is writing the papers you yourself are citing in your work, and where they published
- and who will benefit the most from your work.
- Are you actually trying to reach parents of elementary-aged kids? Then try contacting schoolboards, or publish in their newsletter, rather than an academic journal.