There are different types of journals, just as there are many ways to start a journal. The checklist below is intended to give a general sense of the questions that frequently arise when starting a new journal. This list is not meant to be comprehensive - some items may not be relevant to your journal and there may be others not listed here that are important to consider.
All journals, and particularly new ones, should be guided by a clear strategy. We recommend starting here, as these items will inform everything else.
There are a range of tasks that will need to be considered for each issue.
Organization structure varies from journal to journal. Below are some conventional roles that many journals fill. Depending on the size and scope of your journal, you may have multiple people in one of these roles, or you may have one person filling many of these roles.
Discovery refers to how scholars will find your journal’s content, and preservation refers to making content available for the long term. While they may not seem to be linked, they share common themes, such as persistent identifiers and metadata description.