Welcome to Day 1 of the Publish and Thrive Challenge!
One of the most common publishing questions asked by students and early career scholars is where to publish their work. The publishing world is vast, and different departments, schools, and fields of study have their own expectations and traditions. Today's challenge has you exploring the possibilities with your own creative or scholarly endeavor in mind.
Your Challenge: Identify up to 3 Potential Places to Submit a Manuscript or Other Publication
To begin:
- Look at what you're reading in classes and/or citing in your own papers/projects. What publications resonate with you? Where could you see your work living now, and where would you like to see your work living in the future?
- Talk to your colleagues, advisor(s), mentors, and subject librarians about possible publication venues, and ways to best match your work with a publication.
- Use the Serials Directory to find potential journals in your field. Note 1: it's not comprehensive of all journals, but it's a good place to get a sense of the scope of possible publications. Note 2: if you're not affiliated with UMaine/UMM, you can search WorldCat, a catalog of materials from libraries the world over, for journals in your field/discipline (go to Advanced Search, and select Journal in the Format field).
Or, if you're hoping to publish a book chapter or full length book, search WorldCat, a catalog of materials from libraries around the world, for topics in your field. Limit your results to books to see who's publishing in your field or in your scholarly area(s) of interest.
- Looking to publish in an open access journal? Look at this guidance from the Director of the Harvard Open Access Project, Peter Suber.
- Check out ThinkCheckSubmit for journals and ThinkCheckSubmit for books or book chapters for some questions to consider when you're first deciding where to publish.
Once you've identified up to three potential places to publish:
- Visit the publishers' sites (use your favorite search engine!), and read through their pages-- intended for authors or for submissions (see this book publisher example, and this journal example), to get a sense of the submission process and what you'll need to be ready to do. Need help with this? Email me at jenbonnet@maine.edu!
- Skim through a few articles from recent journal issues, or book descriptions from recent series, to determine whether the publishers you are considering are a good fit with your work.
- Look at this guide to academic publishing for additional insights (they use the Publish or Perish trope but have good information!).
Let's hear from you! What advice would you share with Challenge participants on how to determine where to publish creative and scholarly work? Please share your thoughts and insights in the anonymous discussion board below. Double click on the board, or click on the plus sign at the bottom right of the board, to post a comment.