Assess your publishing strategy

An important aspect of strategic publishing is assessing your publishing strategy as a continual and iterative process. When evaluating your publishing strategy, first think about your research goals, your target audience, and the outcomes you want to achieve. Then evaluate your success in meeting those goals, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Use a wide range of research metrics to determine the reach and impact of your publications within the academic community, both traditional metrics and alternative metrics will help your assessment. Consider tracking the impact of your publication outside of academia, this will help you to tell the story of the societal impact of your work.

Based on your assessment, consider evolving your strategy for future publishing and projects:

Was the journal you published in the right fit for your work?
Were your promotion or socialisation activities successful?
Did you reach the intended audience or end-user of your research?
How can you leverage the audience of your work to find potential academic or industry collaborators?