Manuscript: version of the article author(s) submit to a journal before it undergoes peer review
Peer review: the formal process scholarly journals employ to ensure that a manuscript's writing, methodology, arguments, and conclusions are sound
Preprint: manuscript that has not undergone peer review and/or copyediting but that has been made available to readers
Article: after a manuscript is peer reviewed and officially published, it is referred to as an article
There is no one right way! It's simplest to choose a citation style (APA, MLA, etc.) and format accordingly. If you are not the first author, consider putting your name in bold to draw the readers' attention to your contribution:
Forbes, C., Schlesselman-Tarango, G., & Keeran, P. (2017). Expanding support for graduate students: Library workshops on research funding opportunities. College & Research Libraries, 78(3), 297-313. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.78.3.297
Ensure all publications are formatted according to the same citation style and are listed in chronological order. Many choose to list their most recent publications first. You may also consider creating a separate section for each type of publication (one for book chapters, one for journal articles, etc.).
It's also a good idea to list work that you have submitted to a journal or that has been accepted, even if it is not yet published. Many use "under review" and "forthcoming" to indicate that the publication is in the works:
Pryor, E., & Valencia, R. (Forthcoming). The impact of residency experiences on medical students' mental health and self-confidence. Journal of Medical School Training.
Publications are typically listed after education and job experience.
If you need an example of an academic CV or resume, locate one for a professor or scholar in your field. The Center for Careers, Life, & Service also has a robust collection of tools and resources for resumes and cover letters.
Join Grinnell College librarians to learn about all things publishing, from the nuts and bolts to the ever-changing review and publishing models driven by efforts to make scholarship more accessible and transparent.
If you are fairly new to a field, identifying potential journals can be a daunting and time-consuming process. Some tips:
Take notes on each journal. You'll want to consider type of peer review, time to review, acceptance rate, etc.
To Note:
Most rankings of journals are based on impact factors, which the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) describes as "measure[s] of the relative importance of a journal within its field." Impact factors matter more or less depending on the discipline, and they have been increasingly critiqued as a measure of quality. For more, see the ACRL's resource on Measuring Impact and the Metrics Toolkit.
Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices (Grundniewicz et al., 2019).
It can be difficult for students to identify whether a journal is predatory, though there are many tools like the Think Check Submit checklist that can help. When in doubt, ask a trusted professor or librarian.
For more, see our Predatory Publishers & Other Bad Actors Library guide.
There are many different peer review models. Some of the most common are:
*Anonymous review is sometimes called blind review. This is an ablelist term, and some journals are starting to use alternative language, such as that recommended by the American Psychological Association. However, be aware the term is still very much used in academia.
To know:
Once your manuscript has been accepted, you will engage in what is called rights management. This typically means that you will be asked to sign a publishing agreement that addresses issues such as copyright as well as your rights as an author. Read this document carefully!
You can learn more about specific publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies here:
Search by journal or publisher name.
Use the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) contract addendum to keep your rights to re-use:
Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment (SPARC, 2023). The benefits of open access are many, including more eyes on your research and contributing to more equitable systems of information access. Some journals publish all of their content open access, while others provide an option to publish open access if authors pay an article processing charge (APC). If you receive funding for your research, consider budgeting for APCs in grant applications.
Open access is part of the broader open movement, sometimes called open scholarship or, in the sciences, open science. See our Open Science and Open Resources guides for more.
Check out these journals:
Skim the journals' website to find the following: