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Scholarship in Graduate School

Companion guide to Grinnell College Libraries workshops. Covers the research lifecycle, publishing peer-reviewed articles, identifying research collaborators, and developing a professional online presence.

Workshop Description

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. 

Steps in the Publishing Process

If you are fairly new to a field, identifying potential journals can be a daunting and time-consuming process. Some tips:

  • Ask a professor or trusted colleague if they have any recommendations.
  • Do a search in one of the library's many databases for a topic similar to yours (see link below). Take note of the journals that have published articles on topics related to yours.
  • Google call for papers (your topic). Often, journals will publish special issues comprised of articles on a specific topic.
  • Look at lists of top journals, which are typically crafted using one or more impact factors (see resources below).
  • Try a journal-matching tool like JournalGuide or JANE (see below).

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. 

  • You'll want to carefully follow the citation style and formatting instructions detailed on the journal's website. Grinnell College Libraries have copies of major citation style manuals. We also recommend exploring citation managers, which can help with organizing and crafting citations in various styles. 
  • Before you submit, have a trusted colleague or professor review your manuscript.
  • Don't overlook any deadlines that might be associated with submission. 

There are many different peer review models. Some of the most common are:

  • Anonymous* or masked review: author(s) and/or reviewers are anonymous; in single-anonymized review, reviewers know who the author is, but not vice versa
  • Open review: both parties know who the other is. Sometimes referred to as developmental review if parties are in contact throughout the peer review process 
  • Editorial review board: a board of experts/editors, rather than external reviewers, assess the manuscript

*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:

  • After submitting a manuscript to a journal, the first person you will be in contact with will likely be the editor. The editor should let you know next steps as well as an estimated timeframe for when you'll hear back.
  • The peer review process can take months – or even years! Reviewers are usually working academics, so they are not typically expected to complete a review in a week, for example. Be patient, but you can typically contact the journal editor if you have questions.
  • Most manuscripts are not accepted without revisions. If the editor chooses to proceed with the process after peer review is complete, they will likely send you the reviewers' feedback and request changes. 
  • Unfortunately, not all manuscripts are accepted. If yours is rejected, you can either rework the manuscript and resubmit to the same journal (it would be wise to discuss this option with the editor) or submit it to another journal, possibly one with a higher acceptance rate or a more appropriate scope. 

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:

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.

Journal Activity

Check out these journals:

Skim the journals' website to find the following:

  • Scope
  • Citation style
  • Impact factor/ranking
  • Acceptance rate
  • Time to review
  • Peer review type
  • Frequency of publication
  • Open access offered - article processing charge (APC)?
  • DEIA statement