Multidisciplinary Journal: Why Cross-Subject Publishing Matters
How multidisciplinary journals work, when your paper belongs in one, and how reviewing is handled across very different subject areas.
A multidisciplinary journal publishes work from several distinct fields under one editorial roof. A specialist journal, by contrast, defines itself narrowly — one subject, sometimes one sub-subject. Both models are legitimate, and the right choice depends far more on the nature of your paper than on any general ranking of the two.
This page explains where multidisciplinary publishing genuinely helps, where a specialist venue is the better home, and how a broad-scope journal can still review responsibly across fields as different as pharmacy, civil engineering and management.
What makes a journal multidisciplinary
A multidisciplinary journal accepts submissions across several subject domains and organises review by routing each manuscript to a reviewer competent in that specific domain. The breadth is in the journal's scope, not in any individual reviewer's expertise — that distinction is what separates a serious broad-scope journal from an indiscriminate one.
IJVAST publishes across computer science, artificial intelligence, electronics and communication, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, medical sciences, pharmacy, management, law, agriculture, and arts and humanities. Each submission is matched to a reviewer from the relevant area rather than reviewed by a generalist.
When cross-disciplinary work needs a broad-scope venue
A great deal of contemporary applied research does not sit inside a single field. A machine learning model that predicts crop yield is simultaneously computer science and agriculture. A study of drug-dispensing errors is pharmacy and health-systems management. A structural health monitoring system is civil engineering and embedded electronics. A study of algorithmic decision-making in hiring is computer science and law.
Specialist journals often struggle with this work, not out of hostility but because their reviewer pool is calibrated to one half of the paper. Computer science reviewers may find the agronomy trivial; agronomy reviewers may find the model opaque. A multidisciplinary journal whose editorial board spans both can route the paper to reviewers who can judge the whole of it.
When you should choose a specialist journal instead
There is no virtue in submitting broadly for its own sake. The right question is always: where will the people who need this work actually find it, and who is competent to review it?
- The contribution is a deep technical advance inside one established sub-field, aimed squarely at specialists in it.
- Your intended readership already follows one specific journal in that area.
- The work needs review by someone with extremely narrow domain expertise.
- A funder, department or accreditation body has named specific venues.
How responsible review works in a broad-scope journal
The mechanism is reviewer routing. On submission, the paper's declared domain and index terms are used to match it to a reviewer whose own field matches. The reviewer assesses methodology and contribution against the standards of that field, not against a generic checklist. Written comments are returned to the author, and the reviewer can recommend revision or rejection.
The failure mode of a badly run multidisciplinary journal is a single editor rubber-stamping everything because nobody on the panel can evaluate half the submissions. The safeguard is a board with genuine coverage across the declared subject areas — which is why the editorial board of any multidisciplinary journal is worth reading before you submit.
Practical advantages for students and early-career authors
- Interdisciplinary final-year and dissertation projects have a natural home.
- One submission process and one fee structure across very different subjects.
- Co-authored work spanning two departments does not have to be split artificially.
- Readers from adjacent fields encounter the paper, which is where unexpected collaborations start.
Writing for a multidisciplinary readership
The main craft difference is that you cannot assume shared background. Define field-specific abbreviations at first use even if they are universal in your own discipline. Give one sentence of context for any technique a neighbouring field would not know. State why the problem matters in terms someone outside your speciality can evaluate.
This is not dumbing down — it is the same discipline required in a grant application or a conference talk to a mixed audience, and it usually makes the paper better for specialists too.
Publishing multidisciplinary work with IJVAST
IJVAST is a peer-reviewed, open-access multidisciplinary journal with a flat publication fee of Rs.1,200 for Indian authors including 18% GST, or $25 USD for international authors, an editorial decision targeted within 48 hours, and publication in IEEE two-column format under a CC BY 4.0 licence. Each published paper page records its own article type, subject domain, volume, issue and page range.
IJVAST is published by SkyInnovate Technologies. Its ISSN application and Crossref DOI membership application are both in progress; until those are granted the journal states this openly rather than displaying a number it does not yet hold.
Frequently asked questions
Is a multidisciplinary journal less rigorous than a specialist one?
Not inherently. Rigour depends on whether each manuscript is reviewed by someone competent in its specific field. A broad-scope journal that routes papers to matched subject reviewers can be as rigorous as a narrow one.
Which subjects does IJVAST accept?
Computer science, artificial intelligence, electronics and communication, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, medical sciences, pharmacy, management, law, agriculture, and arts and humanities.
My paper spans two fields. Which domain should I select at submission?
Choose the field that governs the methodology, and use your index terms to signal the second field. That combination is what the editor uses to route the manuscript to an appropriate reviewer.
Do non-technical subjects like law or management follow the same format?
Yes. IJVAST publishes all subjects in IEEE two-column format with numbered references, which keeps the archive internally consistent and machine-readable.
Does the fee differ by subject?
No. The flat fee applies across all subject areas: Rs.1,200 including 18% GST for Indian authors, $25 USD for international authors.
Cross-disciplinary work welcome
Submit your paper and it will be routed to a reviewer from your subject area. Decision targeted within 48 hours.