Here's something that may be useful for those interested in getting their work published in an academic journal. This is an editor's advice to those contemplating being a journal peer reviewer, and may give some insight into the process, as well as standards for "publishability." Guidelines on How to Referee by Thom Brooks :: SSRN The author is Thom Brooks, a Reader in Philosophy at Durham University, who also authored the piece on writing for academic publication I linked to at DegreeInfo in this thread: http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/51551-publishing-how-guide-graduate-students.html
I am not an academic and it's not my goal to become an academic so my opinion is clearly skewed but . . . I would prefer, by a huge margin, to have one of my written pieces appear in a magazine like The Atlantic, or Science than in some academic journal.