PhD Tips: Publishing a Journal Article in Social Science

Here are the Tips I have learnt from the doctoral training on “Publishing a journal article in social science” by Dr.Sara Delamont at Cardiff University, UK. (10 April 2012)

Type of publication

1. Kickstarts with Book Review. Then you will learn about the publishing process. Get in touch with the book review editor of the journal you are interested to publish a research article in the future.
2. Research note is another good way to get start. It is relative short. There is usually less review time and difficulty.
3. Book chapter is another alternative. It is better to publish in a peer-reviewed book.
4. Academic peer-review journal is the top quality type of academic publication. One of the main reason is they are peer-reviewed.

How to select the journals 

1. Journals that fit with your subject
2. Journals you read
3. Consider audience of the journals. Who read it?
4. Call for papers if it fits your paper. But it could be more competitive than normal submission.
5. Rejection Rate. Some journals publish the rate. If not, you may ask the editors.
6. STATUS including Impact Factor (refer to how much papers in that journal have been cited in other journals), Editors, Editorial board.

Check list

1. Format of the journal
2. In the right Length
3. Since one of the reviewers often from the editorial board. You should have read their papers before unless it may be not the right journal for you.

Posible verdict

1. Accept without correction – Unlikely happen
2. Accept with minor revision – Very good possible outcome
3. Revise and resubmit – Look at the feedback and Consider if you can do the required revisions.
4. Wrong journal – Consider other journal and your decision!
5. Reject – Revise the paper according to the feedback you receive. Improve the paper and resubmit to the same journal or other journals

How to deal with the feedback and revisions

1. Be realistic.
2. Reply that the feedbacks are useful (even though they are not)
3. Reply what you will revise in the manuscript and how long it would take aproximately (be realistic!)
4. Compile the feedbacks fro different reviewers. Make a table consisting of issues in the feedback and reviewers.
5. Revise the issues that are mentioned by all reviewers.
6. For the issues that are not mentioned by all reviewers, if you d not want to review, give the courtesy and explain why you have not done so.
7. After finishing the revision, write a systematic report to the editor what the reviewers said and what you have done with the page of the correction. The report may be in a table format.