one of the biggest problems i face coming from a small country (mediterranean) is that editors are not interested in research when they see a small sample, even though might raise stg interesting that bigger countries should start looking for..
researchers from small countries don t have stg important to say?!
Even a small country can represent a 'sample' for larger issues and solutions. The problem is not the country, but the subject of the research. Laboratories are small, but, there, one can analyse great problems too.
During the last 10 years, I studied a very very small territory. A lot of issues emerged. In order to solve them, I had to review a number of 'wide-ranging' historical reconstructions that had been consolidated for a couple of centuries. Often, small places hide great secrets.
Choose a journal in the ranking of excelence, read carefully the guidelines and the call for papers, think if you have something interesting to say about, write a good article and send for peer-review. The problem is not to live in a small island: do a great job and it'll be accepted for publication.
The sample size is dependent on the type of research and the topic at hand. What we might consider as “large samples” is not always necessary. Especially when Sample calculations can support the number of participants recruited this is consider the golden standard. One other issue to be considered is that with European and international guidelines that drive patient care, no editor will argue against a paper coming from a “small” country. On the contrary the specificities of a small country offer some times a context that facilitates the study of specific topics!
If you write from the capital university in a small country it is easier than from a local university I have observed. Then you can have co-authors from other places. Being a woman is also a handicap:)
It is always interesting to have a vision of each country, of the epidemiology of what happens, but you have to know how to present it
This is one of the reasons that make us publish in local and Arabic scientific journals, as well as doctoral dissertations, which makes most of the scientific results unknown, despite their importance to the region and to the world's countries, most disease pests and insects are gradually spread epidemically, making any study of importance expected.
Based on my own experience in nursing research, I would say that the international relevance of the study probably is more important than the size of the country.
Yeah, it happens very often.
However, the novelty of your study is more important than the sample size.
I published one paper in one of top journals in my discipline, whose sample size was very small: Article Park's Optimized Nurse Staffing (Sweet Spot) Estimation Theo...
Article Optimizing Staffing, Quality, and Cost in Home Healthcare Nu...
This is a representative article. Even though the sample size was insufficient for the modeling, I pulbished this paper in a reputed journal (see a method and discussion):
Article Growth Trajectories and Detrended Intraindividual Variabilit...
These articles are published even if the data is quite old (more than 5 years) (see a method and discussion):
Article Korean Patient-Perceived Satisfaction Scale of Community-Bas...
Article Factors Influencing Patient-Perceived Satisfaction With Comm...
Small countries & small sample it is very likely that it may offer us non interesting & dismal outlook however sometime we feel that due to the scientific & technical development covering electronic media & Internet when world has become a smaller it is likely that in future some interesting development may come in such areas .
This is my personal opinion
People from big developed countries are in love with their greatness. They easily buy technology and scientists and dictate science.
Not only the size but also whether data collected from only one centre or multiple. Lots of journals are specifically interested for multi- centred research
Ekaterini,
I understand your position, have you looked into: Journal of Health and Social Sciences: A reputable, DOAJ-indexed, free, open access journal ?
The editor is receptive, respectful and responsive to submissions. Just looks for quality and interesting content.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Christopher
The dimension of a country and consequently of a nation can not be calculated by its surface!
Some nations are far smaller than certain regions of large countries. But from a socio-economic and even political point of view are strong and influential. Examples in the world are excessive.
Hello Katerina,
Great question.
We have seen that the sample representation and the impact of findings can be more important than the actual sample size. Large convenience samples that are not representative will not generate generalizable results. Also, we have seen smaller samples, that were carefully selected to avoid selection bias, and were used to study a well defined problem with success. Usually, it is often interesting to discuss cultural aspects of the study base and compare to other large countries in order to make results more "sell-able".
As @Anastas Ivanov Ivanov, the more important aspect for the Editor is the scientific validity and the formulation of your Conclusion, e. g. this pilot study explored new dimension that can be researched further in larger studies.
In conjunction with what @Dimitrios Zikos mentioned about the sample size, you can consider increasing this by the multicenters collaboration, either nationally or internationally.