Scholarly Communication and Publishing
Publishing a Journal Article Toolkit
For help preparing to publish a journal article, download the document below to work through the steps, and key considerations for getting your manuscript published in a journal.
- How do I Publish in a Journal? ToolkitDownload this step-by-step guide for selecting a journal in which to publish your manuscript.
Publishing a Journal Article
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Finding and selecting a journal can be one of the toughest parts of the publishing process. Predatory publishing continues to be an issue, so it's vital to be wary while considering who you want to publish with. This article on predatory publishing can provide more information on what to watch out for. Fortunately, there are ample resources that can help you in discovering the right journal for your writing. Take a look at the sub-tabs in this section for more information on how to go about this process. As an overview:
Considerations for Selecting a Journal
- Scope of the journal (to ensure your topic is covered)
- Topics it publishes about
- Type of articles it publishes – Original empirical studies, Reviews of research, Reports, Case Studies, Commentaries, etc.
- Open Access vs. Subscription
- Can anyone view it or only subscribers/purchasers?
- If OA, do authors pay to publish in the journal? If so, what are costs?
- Publication Time Line (How soon do you need/want to publish?)
- Length of time between submission and publication
- Review deadlines
- Review Process (for Peer-reviewed journals)
- Who are the reviewers/editors?
- Blind review?
- Review timeline
- Journal Impact - Metrics and Impact Factor – How often are articles in this journal cited by articles published in other journals?
- PlumX Metrics This link opens in a new window – record buzz on the journals article – includes social media mentions, as well as articles and commentaries, etc.
- Cabells This link opens in a new window, Scopus, SCImago This link opens in a new window all report Journal impact factors
- Copyright (Which rights will you retain to your content after publication?)
- Author’s rights in the Journal Publishing Agreement/Author’s contract – Who owns the content, what are the limits on republishing, reusing the work, etc.
- Access
- Indexing (Where will this journal be indexed and searchable by users?)
- Where is this journal indexed? EBSCO? ProQuest? Major databases?
- Does Google Scholar index this journal?
- Does Semantic Scholar index this journal?
Check out this new book about writing articles for journals:
Publishing Journal Articles by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781108277426Publication Date: 2020Journal publication and grant writing are two core professional skills for new scholars today. However, systematic training is not typically offered in graduate programs worldwide. This book equips readers with the current scientific knowledge by providing a concise introduction to the science of journal article publication. The overall structure generally matches the curriculum of a graduate course and each chapter features a learning sequence based on Daniel Kahneman's intuitive judgement theory. The volume analyzes the intuitive thoughts of new authors from a variety of countries, uses over fifty real-life cases, and focuses on core concepts from nearly 100 research articles. It provides scientific advice for new authors, junior researchers, and graduate students to publish their scholarly work and advance their academic careers.