Part II: Identifying Appropriate Scholarly Journals
Maximizing Your Reach
Circulation Figures
Another measure of a journal’s impact is its circulation. How many subscribers does the journal have? If your topic is obscure or your field very specialized, circulation may be a less relevant consideration. You can often find a journal’s circulation figures on its website. Disciplinary journal guides or general periodical directories such as Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory (available in most academic libraries) also list circulation figures.
View a sample entry from the online version (Screen shot from Ulrich’s Periodical Directory™, © 2006 Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). All rights reserved. Used with permission).
Again, some of the journals with the highest circulation may not be appropriate for your project because they may be much more selective in their review process and consequently have a much higher rejection rate.
Note that if a journal provides free or open access to its articles on the Web, the journal’s paper circulation figures may not be as important as its online circulation. You may also want to check whether the online journal title shows up in search engine results when you enter key terms into Google Scholar, and whether it’s included in specialized Web directories and databases such as PubMed, Public Library of Science, or Social Sciences Research Network.
As the world of academic publishing shifts more toward electronic access, the online reach of the journal may become a more important measure of its overall impact on the scholarly community than its paper circulation figures.

