Given the large quantity of data published nowadays, one way to improve visibility of your research outcomes is to correctly target your audience. When you look for the most suitable journal to submit a manuscript to, two of the key questions you must address are “Who is my audience?” and “Which journal attracts that intended range of readers?”.
A journal’s audience can vary depending on the journal’s specialty. Indeed, multidisciplinary journals publish articles from a variety of disciplines while specialized ones deal with specific disciplines (such as medicine, chemistry, biology, etc.). Within a specific discipline, specialized journals can focus on a narrow topic such as melanoma for oncology journal or congenital heart disease for cardiology one.
The most common cause of manuscript rejection by journals is often due to lack of scope fit between the submitted content and the journal’s aim, scope, publishing trend and priorities, and not because of the quality of the submitted work.
Looking at the journals’ aim and scope is a good starting point when you evaluate the possible targets. You can also appraise the journal’s publishing trend and priorities and, even if not specified by the journal, such trends still exist because of the interest of the journal editors or affiliated organizations. You can also gauge them by performing a quick screening of previous published papers in that journal.