Journal Website Publishing Best Practices

At Scholastica, we care a lot about not only user experience in the broad sense, but also reader experience in the narrow sense. As a consequence of this, as we work with our journal partners, we encourage them to make decisions with their websites that put "readers first"; often the things that journals think they want to communicate aren't particularly "reader-friendly."

Choose a strong image that speaks to an article's content

When reading the newspaper, magazine, or online outlet, it's normal and arguably expected to see an image that evokes something related to the article. In a article about energy consumption one might expect to see an image of a light pole or a family in their living room watching television while the lights are on.

In cases where there might not be an exact "noun-to-image-match" between the article content and a visual, something abstract like a pattern often works very well.

Ledes lure readers

Don't skimp on the lede! Ledes are tremendously "reader-friendly." In the image below, the lede gives the reader more insight into what the article is truly about. Yes, the title mentions that the article is an ethnography of a particular page, but it's the lede that guides the reader to question whether or not the transition urban living is a positive development or not.