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Drawbacks to multiple publications in the same journal?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader wrote:

Are there any significant drawbacks to having multiple publications in the same journal?

Having two papers in two different journals could look less impressive than having two in the same journal. But as long as the journals are relatively on par with one another, is it that big of a deal?

I ask because I've got a paper forthcoming in a well-run journal and another paper I know would be a good fit with it. It's tough to find well-run journals these days, and it's even harder to find a well-run journal that would also be a good fit for a polished draft.

Thoughts?

Maybe if most of your publications are in a single journal, that might look weird. But I don't see any issue with two publications in the same journal. It may also depend on which journal we're talking about (would anyone bat an eyelash at multiple publications in Philosophical Review?).

What do you all think?

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3 responses to “Drawbacks to multiple publications in the same journal?”

  1. Michel

    I worried about this early on, because my first two were in the same top specialist journal, and I had a third come out a little after, along with some stuff elsewhere.
    Now that I have more experience, I would say not to worry about it. I do think it would look a little odd if you were, say, five years out and had four pubs, all in the same journal (yes, even if it was four in PhilReview–I might be especially likely to raise an eyebrow then!), but that’s not particularly likely.
    I think it’s good to try to publish in a range of journals, and to try to publish in both specialist and generalist venues. After all, you want to show prospective employers that you have range, and journals can be idiosyncratic in what they like. But that’s easier to demonstrate over time. When you’re just starting out, you have to take what you can get, and target journals based on different criteria than when you’re five or seven or ten years out and already have a solid base of publications to rely on.

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  2. An Anon

    I guess I don’t really see what kind of negative inferences you’d be worried about people drawing from multiple publications in the same journal. That you’re blackmailing the editor?

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  3. it’s not not a factor

    I think if someone’s 2 (total) publications were both at the same journal, it wouldn’t look as good as if they were at 2 different journals of the same caliber. (For me, Phil Review is no exception — quite the opposite, given that I have the impression that being in the right professional network makes a difference there.) I agree with Michel that you want to show you can publish in different places, and ideally different sorts of places, though that can be more difficult depending on your subfield.
    As Marcus says, though, once you have more publications it doesn’t matter much. If 2 of your 4 publications were at the same journal, I wouldn’t bat an eye.

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