Deciding Where to Submit Your Work
Where to start:
- Look at your list of references! Journals you've cited in your work might be good places to submit.
- Search for articles on your topic in a subject-specific database, and make note of what journals appear frequently in your search results.
- Ask your subject librarian! She or he can help you find good quality journals that are relevant to your research area.
- If you've received an e-mail inviting you to submit your article to a journal, check the "What is a Predatory Publisher?" tab of this guide for help determining if the publisher is legitimate.
Next steps:
- Visit the journals' websites to review:
- Scope (topics in which they are willing to accept submissions)
- Author guidelines (formatting of manuscripts/illustrations/reference lists and other requirements for submission)
- Turnaround time (how long it takes from submitting an article to receiving a decision)
- Prioritize your list. Most journals do not want to review submissions that are also under consideration elsewhere, so you will need to wait to receive a response from Journal #1 before submitting to Journal #2 and so on.
- Visit Thinkchecksubmit.org for more guidance on assessing journal quality.
Conference or Journal?
In some disciplines, like computer science and engineering, it is more common for researchers to submit papers to be presented at a conference than to submit an article to a journal.
Recommended reading: "Choosing a Venue: Conference or Journal?" (Michael Ernst, Computer Science professor at the University of Washington)
Subscription vs. Open-Access Journals
Open-access journals differ from subscription-based journals in that their content is free for everyone to read. There are several types of open-access journals—while some require authors to pay an article processing charge to cover the costs of publishing, many are completely free to both authors and readers. Some journals offer both a traditional subscription version and make some articles available open-access—this is called a hybrid publishing model.
Legitimate open-access journals follow the same standards for rigorous publishing that traditional subscription-based scholarly journals do. Their inclusion in a subject-based literature index like Chemical Abstracts or a directory with strong inclusion criteria like the Directory of Open Access Journals means that they have been reviewed by experts and judged worthy. These journals will be transparent on their websites about their editorial oversight, affiliations, selection criteria, peer review process, and any charges to authors.
While some online journals have questionable practices (see the "What is a Predatory Publisher?" tab for more), open access publishing does NOT equal vanity publishing!
Recommended reading:
- "Dispelling Myths About Open Access" (MIT Libraries)
- "How Do I Find a Suitable Open Access Journal?" (Erin McKiernan, Biomedical Physics professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and OA advocate)
Participating in Peer Review
Serving as a peer reviewer can be a great way to familiarize yourself with the scholarly publishing process. The American Psychological Association's Science Student Council has created a guide for grad students about becoming a peer reviewer:
Director, Scholarly Communication & Digital Publishing
What is an ORCID?
...And why should you have one?
An ORCID is a unique identifier assigned to an author, like a Social Security Number. It's a way of distinguishing between authors with similar names, and determining if two different versions of a name actually belong to the same author (eg. if a name changes due to marriage).
Publishers are starting to require that authors include their ORCID or sign up for one during the submission process. Why not create your ORCID now?