One question: Is there a way I can check what are the top journals to be published in; I mean those whose credits can be mentioned in novel query letters. In other words is there a list somewhere that says e.g. that these are the top 20 literary/mainstream journals.
To the best of my knowlege there is no 'list', but some things to keep in mind
-I look for wikipedia articles on the market. If it's notable enough to be there, people probably know about it.
-It helps, of course, if you recognize the name (ie the New Yorker)
-As Uncle Jim says: can you find it in a bookstore? Some print magazines do still appear in bookstores, you can try to check those out.
-Search for reviews of issues of the 'zine
As for style: humor is probably predominant, as a funny political piece wouldn't go to the same place as a serious one. Personally, I think 'multi-cultural' isn't a useful category to search by, as few markets would reject a story for being
too multicultural (there might be some, but I doubt it). I'm still learning to use style myself, but I think if often helps to reach by the most 'objectionable' category. For example, in a humorous story with LGBT characters, I might search under 'theme-LGBT', because some markets still don't want stories with LGBT, while humor in this case would be more commonly acceptable.
Hope this helps. I've never really laid out these rules in my own mind, so I'm trying to do it as I type.