Mainly it&#x27;s a chicken and egg situation.<p>A journal is prestigious because the papers it publishes have an allusion of quality, because they are published by a prestigious journal.<p>A prestigious journal publishes high-quality papers because it can attract high-quality authors and reviewers, because it is a prestigious journal.<p>A journal is prestigious because researchers choose to (try to) be published in it, because their articles will be widely read by other researchers, because it is a prestigious journal.<p>If you were trying to bootstrap a new journal, you&#x27;d have a tough time; unless you didn&#x27;t care about its quality.<p>The bare minimum would be a staff who have the time and skill to sift through obviously junk papers and then know which reviewers to use for the legitimate papers. Your best bet would probably be to assemble a staff of well-regarded researchers in whatever field(s) you wanted the journal to cover.