Maximizing the impact of a niche publication
Getting the most impact from a publication requires being able to define who the audience is and how to reach them, across both journals and online channels, especially in complex or niche cases.
In our recent podcast with the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS), Mike Taylor, Head of Data Insights and Customer Analytics at Altmetric, part of Digital Science, and Noah Strait, Director of Operations and Program Management at SMAC to talk Garth Sundem Director of Comms and Marketing at MAPS, about the benefits of taking an analytical approach to publication strategy.
In this episode of MAPS’ ‘Elevate’ series, the trio discuss the challenges of getting into a journal with a high Impact Factor, and whether this is always the best approach for niche publications.
While publishing in a prestigious journal most definitely has its place, it also costs more and takes more time. Therefore, now more than ever, it’s important to measure the impact of publishing in these kinds of journals.
‘I mean, these are great journals you’re talking about, but they’re not great journals because they have a high impact factor. They’re great journals because of the organizations that run them, the editorial… and so on. And, of course, their reputation. JIF (Journal Impact Factor) is a sort of a shortcut to understanding a big old mix of those, but… it’s not the best way of understanding them.’ Mike
The question is where else should you be publishing to reach your specific audience? And, how do you identify these journals?
‘… if you want to change the way that you know, maybe the 400 practitioners in the world, are thinking about this [rare] disease, you need to be in a journal that they are contributing to, that they are recommending and reading. And this, I think, is a slightly different approach… We’re not really yet using the data that we could to target our publications. And I think this is one of the things we’re going to see changing over the course of the next few years.’
Listen to the podcast to find out how you can reach your target audience for niche publications.