Choose Venue

---
name: choose-venue
description: "Choose where to submit a paper: shortlist journals, or conferences, by fit and diamond open access."
disable-model-invocation: false
user-invocable: true
argument-hint: "<paper-or-abstract> [journal|conference]"
---

# Choosing a venue

Journal mode is the default; conference mode when the author asks for a talk,
poster or conference paper. Preparing the submission itself is `/conference-submission-prep` or `/pdf-finish`; recording it,
`/submission-event`.

## Values, both modes

The author publishes **diamond open access, without APC**. Filter in this order:
peer reviewed; scope fit (would the editor or programme committee send it out,
or desk-reject?); diamond OA, then low APC only when an institutional agreement
(Couperin) covers it; presence on the author's evaluation lists; not
predatory (check DOAJ). Flag any MDPI venue with its reputational cost in the
author's community; never recommend one silently. Fit beats prestige: an
impact factor or a famous name never outranks scope fit, word limit or language.

## 1. Characterize the piece

Contribution (finding, method, dataset, history, review), home discipline,
adjacent ones, maturity, language. Ask only what the manuscript does not answer.

## 2. Generate candidates

At least eight, beyond the obvious three: home-field venues, adjacent and
interdisciplinary ones, generalists, diamond-OA venues (always searched for
explicitly), open special issues or calls. Search from the piece's own
keywords and its field's societies, national venues included. Research the
candidates sequentially in this session: each is a few lookups, and the
ranking needs one consistent judgment, so no fan-out.

Journal mode, per candidate: recent articles (do they publish this?), OA model
and APC, review type, turnaround, indexing (DOAJ, ERIH PLUS, Scopus).

Conference mode, per candidate: formats offered and their limits, deadline,
dates and place, cost. **Verify every deadline and format limit on the
official call page** and write the date you checked; a date from memory or an
aggregator is a lead, not a fact. Drop calls already closed.

## 3. Choose the format (conference mode)

Oral for work that needs discussion, the usual case in history and social
sciences; short paper for results on real data in a technical community;
poster for a tool or infrastructure, where practitioners come to it. Different
formats at different venues are fine if each reuses the material without a
heavy rewrite.

## 4. Present

A comparison table — venue, publisher or organizer, OA model and APC, scope fit
(high / medium / low, one-line reason), list presence, key trade-off. Journals
grouped diamond OA first, then low APC, then APC. Conferences: two to four
targets, each with format, verified deadline and the adaptation needed; check
the preparation windows do not collide.

Then one recommendation with its trade-off stated, and the fallback cascade
when there is a natural one (submit to A; if rejected, B).