ACADEMIC JOURNALS
HOW-TO FOR JOURNAL SUBMISSIONS
There are a few rules to follow when submitting to a journal that will be
standard across most of the journals listed below.
Cover letter
With your manuscript, you should include a letter to the editor. In it
you should state that you are submitting this paper for consideration to
journal X. That's the minimum such a cover letter should include. (Point
being, you need a cover letter.)
On the double-blind review process
Most of the journals below operate via double-blind peer review which
means that the author doesn't know who is reviewing the paper and the
reviewers don't know whose paper they are reviewing. (Of course, one
shouldn't be completely naive about this idea. Often it is possible to
tell the identity of the author or reviewer/s given the content or style
or especially the particular recommendations made by some reviewers. For
example, if a reviewer recommends ten additional pieces you should have
cited and nine of these are to the work of one particular person there is
a good chance that person was reviewing the manuscript.)
- In order to make sure that the review is truly double-blind, it is
customery to take out self-citations from the manuscript and include them
on a separate sheet for the editor/s only. When you are including a
self-citation in the document, you can just say Ident.
Ref. 1 or something like that.
Possible outcomes
A few months after having submitted your manuscript (or many
months in the case of some journals) you will hear from the editor/s with
a decision. The editor/s will send their letter and will also include
copies of the reviewers' comments.
Most journals have the following outcomes:
- accept
- conditional accept
- revise and resubmit
- reject
Outright acceptance happens once in a blue moon, probably. Conditional
acceptances are quite rare as well, they require the author/s to change
just a few minor things in the manuscript to be published.
- R&R (revise and resubmit) is the best most authors can hope for.
This means that the editor/s think your piece could make it into the
journal, but that will require you to make some minor as well as some
major revisions to the manuscript. This can entail performing additional
analyses, perhaps integrating more data, and likely
reconceptualizing and rewriting sections of the paper. In response to an
R&R, you will be asked to send in the revised manuscript and a
letter outlining to the editor/s and the reviewers how you addressed
their points of concern. This revised paper then goes into a second round
of reviews. In the second round, often one or two of the original
reviewers are
asked to look at your piece again but it is also likely sent to some new
reviewers as well.
- Finally, you may receive a rejection. Do not despair. Use the
comments from the editor/s and reviewers to improve the
manuscript. In any case, do not put it in the drawer and just forget
about it.
Try to turn it around as quickly as possible and send it to another
journal. (If you don't find the comments of the editor(s)/reviewers
helpful you can just send on the original but be aware that the same
reviewers may receive your piece from another journal as well and they
will not be happy to see the same manuscript without revisions.) Keep in
mind that there is a lot of chance involved in the journal
review process so don't get too discouraged if you receive a rejection.
How long?
Some journals take a very long time to get back to you. I am trying
to figure out what the timeline is for the journals listed below. If you
have experience with any of them - either as an author or as a reviewer -
please let me know by sending a note to
journals - at - eszter - dot - com.
- Here is a helpful resource with information about review
times and more: The
Iowa Guide. (Please note that it is not always accurate. For example,
Gender & Society is known to have a much longer review process than is
stated in this guide.)
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