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In the context of research in topics subject to controversy, what strategies are there for getting it published?

A dutch cardiologist suggests that such research is difficult to get published. He recommends it for for experienced researchers.

I have been working on a manuscript for quite some time and would really like to get it published (move on) to consolidate my efforts. The research in the manuscript is controversial in two respects, perhaps because it is interdisciplinary. I believe my/our solution works, but the two disciplines really are not inclined to appreciate one another and accept the suggested solution. This situation makes it rather hard to find the right audience. I suppose scholars care more about what is published in highly esteemed journals, which may increase the motivation to refute the proposed idea. This may suggest submitting the manuscript in less prestigious, perhaps obscure, journals.

Johan
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  • The discussion about Einstein and other topics has been moved to chat; please do not continue that discussion here. – cag51 Apr 25 '23 at 00:10
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    This question has changed several times, the title does not make sense, and it's still not clear to me what the problem is. Questions that cannot be successfully clarified may be closed. Also, there are many past question here about how to select a journal; for example this one. – cag51 Apr 25 '23 at 00:13
  • @cag51 how to best move on from here? the answer kindly provided by Allure does not answer the question as it stand currently, but the question as it was posed before. However, that was not the question I intended, but the one you thought I wished to raise. So, will you either permit me to delete this question, please, or just role back the edits I made, so that Allure's answer connects to the question. I think deleting this is much better. – Johan Apr 28 '23 at 08:10
  • I don't see an answerable question here other than the one I suggested. "How to find a journal" is far too broad to be answerable. So I would suggest rolling back to my version. We generally do not delete questions once they have received answers -- and in this case, doing so would not be fair to Allure. But if you don't want to roll it back (e.g., because you don't want that question associated with your account), the next-best thing would be to close it -- I can do that. – cag51 Apr 28 '23 at 14:23
  • @cag51 in my opinion some of the comments to the question understood it. I found them helpful. If you delete the question, can I then still access it? Or do I have to make a copy? – Johan Apr 28 '23 at 15:22

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You seem to equate "obscure" with "fast". That's not necessarily true. Assuming your journal actually does serious peer review (i.e., it is not a predatory journal), then the two most important factors that govern publication speed are:

  1. How active the editorial staff is
  2. How fast they request their reviews

#1 is a big deal. If a review arrives and they make a decision within the next 24 hours, that cuts down processing time a lot. So does inviting reviewers as soon as one reviewer declines.

#2 is also a big deal. Reviewing takes a non-negligible amount of time to do, but most reviewers submit their reviews just before the deadline, so there is some sweet spot where you can maximize the number of reviewers that agree and also the number of reviewers that actually submit a helpful review.

But importantly, neither of these factors depend on how obscure the journal is. A highly prestigious journal does have the advantage that reviewers are more likely to agree to review when invited, but that advantage is utterly and completely dominated by the two factors above.

So no - it is not reasonable to publish in an obscure journal just to get the paper "over and done with quickly", because being obscure is not related to being fast. This doesn't mean some obscure journals aren't very fast, or vice versa. It just means that you aren't looking at the things that actually determine publication speed.

Allure
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  • Hi, thanks, I believe a moderator changed the title/reframed the question, so it did not contain the element of controversy and how to handle it when trying to get published – Johan Apr 24 '23 at 21:47
  • @Johan it's looking like a different question now, so this answer may not apply; you may need to ask a new one (and also explain why a Google search for "how to choose a journal" does not apply). – Allure Apr 25 '23 at 05:51
  • indeed. I believe the moderator tried to help without being able to understand what I wanted to ask. I will probably ask another question. – Johan Apr 25 '23 at 06:40