Take the time to sit down with your co-authors and consider which journals your publication may be suited to. It is a good idea to begin by
Which journal is right for this work?
To some, the answer to this question may be obvious: (Whichever I can make the greatest IMPACT) but there are more considerations to take into account when choosing the right journal.
It can be useful to look at your
Journals may have specific scopes, aims and objectives. This will motivate what type of articles they choose to publish. These can change as a Journal's motivations change, so it can be worth checking!
The time taken from initial submission to publication varies from Journal to Journal. It can be worth considering this, whilst some papers can wait - in a time of great competition, time-to-publication can play and important role if you want to claim to be the first!
Journals have different levels of peer review. It is useful to consider the level of peer review of the Journal’s you are interested in, in order to better prepare yourself for the level of review you may receive as well as the time-scales it may take.
Single Editor/In house staff and external peer review
The simplest (and in my experience of the Sciences, the most common) approach involves a single Editor and a panel of reviewers/referees who volunteer to review papers in the area of their expertise. Different Journals have different numbers of reviewers, often varying from 1 to 3.
Editorial Board and external peer review
Some academic journals have an editorial board of unpaid editors, who review all submissions and use individual members of the board for more intense critique.
Open Access
Some are open access, like ArXiv, where there is no review process.
A measure reflecting the number of citations a particular journal has, giving it some sort of relevant importance within a given field. Despite what is often expected, the impact factor of the journal is not the final decision maker. It is worth considering all of the above alongside the impact factor!