Many graduate students publish to build their resume for school, job opportunities or to connect with scholars and experts in their field. This section of the guide will cover different ways to find scholarly journals, how to prepare your manuscript for publication, the peer review process, copyright, and how to avoid predatory journals. It also includes AI tools for finding journals to publish in. 

Listed below are key terms and overall concepts to be aware of as you look into publishing:

• Research topic: every journal has different subject topics. An important aspect of publishing is finding a journal that matches your manuscript topic. 
• Acceptance rate: refers to the percentage of manuscripts that are accepted for publication.
• Impact factor: measures how frequently the average article in a selected journal has been cited in the last year or two. Impact factor can be helpful in determining how relevant a journal is in your field. Search for a specific journal's impact factor in the Journal Citation Reports. 
• Timeline: find out how often the journal publishes and how that match your personal timeline if you are looking to publish before graduation or starting a job. 
• Manuscript types: scholarly writing comes in different formats such as literature reviews, case studies, conceptual papers, etc.
• Format guidelines: each journal will have different format guidelines concerning the document format, font, references, paragraphs, and supporting data like charts or images.
• Copyright: a type of intellectual property right that protects original work. Most academic journals issue "author publishing agreements" which means that the author retains copyright but but allows the journal to be the exclusive license and publisher of the work. 
• Creative Commons License: each journal publishes under different licenses. Many Open Access journals publish under Creative Commons License (CCL), which give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. 
• Scholarly/peer review: many scholarly journals are peer reviewed, meaning that each manuscript submitted is read and reviewed by experts in the field. Each journal will have a different review process in order to validate research, make sure to consult the journal’s guidelines on their website to gain more information. See the flow chart below about peer review process:

This image is an adaptation of Types of Review by Jessica Lange from McGill Library and the University of Calgary and is used under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International license.

1. Ensure your manuscript follows the format requirements by checking the submission guidelines on the publisher's website.
2. Submit your manuscript. Keep in mind that you can only submit a manuscript to one journal at a time due to ethical reasons. This is why choosing a journal to submit to is a commitment.  
3. Usually, your manuscript will be returned with revisions. Peer-reviewed feedback will contain a lot of revisions. Take it as a learning experience. Make the edits and resubmit. 
4. If you are rejected, look for other journals to submit to. Keep in mind that each journal will have different layout requirements, citations styles, etc. Always refer to the journal’s website.  
5. Lastly, it is good practice to have a support group to meet with and give each other feedback and guidance. Consider joining or creating a group with other students.  

National University Webinar, June 27, 2024:  "As scholars, we all engage with peer-reviewed publications, but few of us know how an article becomes peer-reviewed and ends up in a database. Both National University librarians, Tammy Ivins and Dan Johnston will lift the lid on scholarly publishing to help you understand more about the scholarly communication process, what publishers want, how bibliometrics impact scholarly communication, and how you can best navigate this landscape."

Box adapted from Library and Information Science guide.