Submit a New Journal Proposal
We are looking for a new scientific journal proposal (Electronic version) which covers issues related to life sciences with the following key areas:
- The title of the journal
- The aims and scope of the journal
- The rationale of the journal (why the journal is needed)
- The envisaged editorial structure
- The format or level or approach of the journal
- The target audience and market potential of the journal
To elaborate, the following are the issues which you should address in putting the above together:
Aims and scope
- What are the aims and scope of the journal?
- What are the disciplines or sub-disciplines that will be covered?
It is worth noting that, a journal which is diffuse in its cross-disciplinarity is usually the most difficult to make commercially viable. This requires considerable (and therefore expensive) promotional coverage of a number of different areas. If at all possible, you should try and identify some core target fields within which would be found the main audiences for the journal.
How will you ensure that you receive contributions from other European countries and the USA?
Again, you should note that it is generally important to us that a journal is truly international in its scope, both in terms of contributions and editorial structure. It is also a ‘fact of journal life’ that in most instances the long-term financial viability of a journal is dependent on obtaining a significant proportion of its subscriptions from America. You should address the need to appeal to the American market and any implications (approaches and interests in the field(s) covered between the States and Europe).
Rationale for the journal
- Why is the journal needed?
- What is the background to the proposal in terms of the current and future development of the field?
- How will the journal relate to relevant existing journals in Europe and the States and what will your journal offer that these do not?
- How confident are you of not only finding an audience for the journal, but also of generating sufficient high quality contributions?
Editorial board
As the journal is to be international, we would wish to see international scholars in prominent editorial positions (e.g. UK, Continental Europe and America) or an editor based in one of these locations with a couple of Co-editors based in the others.
Format of the journal
Here, we would appreciate some more details of how you see the content and structure of the journal. For example:
- What will be the balance between theoretical, empirical or research based and ‘practice-oriented’ papers?
- What will the journal feature be? For example, book reviews, review essays, special thematic issues and translations of articles not yet translated into English etc.? Please include mock contents of the first two issues of the journal. These need not be real titles of actual articles but more the sort of spread of areas and authors you are planning to approach.
- How will you address issues of interdisciplinarity?
- How many issues would you envisage annually (We would encourage you to think about a quarterly journal).
Market profile or potential
Many of the issues below, would have been addressed explicitly or implicitly in the sections above, but we need to have at some point in the proposal, the detailed account possible of the market profile and potential for the journal. For example:
- An assessment of who and in what fields, would subscribe to the journal. We would be relying heavily on individual subscribers at the beginning of the journal life as well as institutions. Could you quantify (approximately) your sense of the size of the overall market in terms of numbers of potential individual subscribers?
- Would the market be easy to reach? For example, which associations or societies would the readership belong to? Which major international conferences would they attend?
- What relatedly, is the estimated potential institutional base of the journal?
- Where is the work in this area being done, at what sort of institutions?
- What is the geographical spread of the work, in terms of different countries and thus the international spread of potential institutional subscribers? In particular, what is the state of the field in the USA and Europe?
- Is there currently and or will there be, a teaching as well as a research base for this Work to solidify the library demand?
Timing
When would you see the first issue of the journal being published?
To discuss more about your proposal, Contact us