Writing for Publication

Mark DressmanUniversity of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Co-Editor, 2008-13Book Review Ed., 2001-07

Playing the GamePublishing in peer-reviewed journals is a “game” with two sets of rules:

1. General rules that nearly all journals follow; and

2. Rules and norms that differ among journals and disciplines within educational research.

Knowing these rules and following them carefully is absolutely critical to being taken seriously by editors and reviewers of journals.

Based on my experience as an editor, I would estimate that 40%-50% of manuscripts submitted are rejected because the authors did not “play the game” and take these rules seriously.

So, What Are These “Rules?”

(And what does it take to follow them?)

First: Make sure that your manuscript fits the journal you want to submit to.

• DO NOT pick a journal based simply on its title or because it’s prestigious.

• For example, Research in the Teaching of English is a journal that ONLY publishes research about teaching English within English language contexts.

• That means it DOES NOT publish articles about teaching English as a foreign or second language.

Instead, Do This:

• Go to the journal’s website (nearly all journals have these) or to your library if it has the journal and:– Look at past issues to see if the titles and

abstracts of articles are similar to your topic– Read the journal’s mission statement and

“guidelines for authors” to see what types of articles the journal publishes on what topics.

• If your manuscript is not a clear match, DO NOT SUBMIT IT. Editors will not accept a manuscript that does not fit their topic for review and some will not even bother to write you.

If you think your topic fits,

• Be sure that this is STILL the best place to submit your manuscript.

• REMEMBER: You can only submit a manuscript to ONE JOURNAL AT A TIME. This is a very strict rule. If you submit the same ms. to two journals simultaneously and the editors find out (and they will because the actual pool of reviewers is small and may overlap), your ms. will be REJECTED by both editors, they’ll tell everyone in the world, and you’ll struggle to be trusted or published anywhere.

There’s another reason to be sure before you submit that your ms. fits, and that is

• There may be other journals that are more likely to publish your manuscript than the one you are interested in submitting to.

• So, be honest with yourself. Do you want to submit to this journal because it really is the best fit or because it’s a prestigious research journal?

• The answer should always be: BECAUSE I WANT THE BEST CHANCE OF PUBLICATION

Reasons Why a Topic Might Fit but NOT Have a Good Chance of

Publication:• The journal only publishes articles on “themes.”• The journal is so popular that it must limit what it

publishes.• The journal’s readership is researchers and your

manuscript is written for a practitioner audience.• Your methodology does not fit (the journal focuses on

qualitative research and your study is quantitative or vice versa).

• Your ms. is theoretical and the journal only publishes empirical work or vice versa.

If You’re Publishing in an International Journal (Outside your Country or

Region)

Make sure that your topic will be one that an international audience will understand and find interesting.

Let’s take the case of JLR:

Recent Article Titles from JLR:

• Manuscript Title #1:Comparing Editions of English Textbooks in Turkey, 1980-2014

• Manuscript Title #2:Content Area Literacy in a Secondary Science Classroom: A Report from Turkey

• Manuscript Title #3:Comparing Literacy Achievement in Two Inquiry-Based Elementary Classrooms: Qatar and Turkey

• Manuscript Title #4:Early Literacy Acquisition in a Bilingual Turkish/English Classroom

Which of these might fit?Phillip A. Towndrow, Mark Evan Nelson, and Wan Fareed Bin Mohamed YusufSquaring Literacy Assessment with Multimodal Design: An Analytic Case for Semiotic Awareness Michaela J. Ritter, Jungjun Park, Terrill F. Saxon, and Karen A. ColsonA Phonologically Based Intervention for School-Age Children with Language Impairment: Implications for Reading Achievement Suzanne M. MillerA Research Metasynthesis on Digital Video Composing in Classrooms: An Evidence-Based Framework toward a Pedagogy for Embodied Learning

Saad ShawerPreparing Adult Educators: The Need to Develop Communicative Language Teaching Skills in College-Level Instructors Steven J. Amendum and Jill FitzgeraldDoes Structure of Content Delivery or Degree of Professional Development Support Matter for Student Reading Growth in High-Poverty Settings?

If You’re Still in Doubt

• It’s a good idea to send a brief e-mail directly to the journal’s e-mail address (DO NOT use the editor’s personal address) and ask if the editor thinks your ms. is a good fit. Include the title and an abstract. DO NOT expect them to read the whole paper. DO NOT send a message to a journal unless you are honestly not sure.

You’ve Found the Perfect Journal. Now What Do You Do?

• Read the submission guidelines VERY carefully.

• Make sure your ms. fits the page limit. If it is too long, the editors may reject it or send it back and tell you to “cut pages.”

• Make sure your ms. is written in the same style as the journal.

• NOTE: All journals do not use APA or MLA or Chicago or Harvard. Some use modified versions of these.

If you really want to submit a manuscript to a journal that uses its own

unique style and your manuscript is written in APA, what should you

do?Answer: Re-edit your manuscript, including all references, in that journal’s style (copy it from an article or articles published in that journal), and respecting that journal’s page limit.

Why Go to All That Work?!

• Editing to conform to the journal’s style sends the strong message that you are VERY interested in publishing in that journal.

• The editor will immediately notice and be impressed (I suspect this is part of my success with multiple international journals, including Ethnography, Journal of Curriculum Studies, and Curriculum Inquiry).

• The editor will be in a much friendlier mood because you’ve already done a lot of the copyediting work for him or her.

REMEMBER

• Editors of journals are extremely busy people who usually have low budgets and often need to make quick decisions about whether to work with an author on a manuscript or reject it.

• The easier you make that editor’s job for her or him, the more likely that editor is to be positively responsive to your work.

Once Submitted, Responsible Editors Will

• Read through your ms. or at least the abstract within a week or so;

• Make a decision whether to send the ms. out for review or not (most will not if it doesn’t fit);

• Begin to look for 2-4 reviewers (different journals have different policies) acquainted with the topic (this can take some time);

• Notify you that your ms. has been received and whether it is being sent out for review or not.

When You Submit• Copy edit your ms. in advance to make it conform

to all rules and guidelines for the journal.• Follow all directions carefully. If there is a website

for uploading your ms., USE IT. Do not send manuscripts to an editor

• Include a cover letter. The letter should state the title of the ms. and briefly explain its topic in 1 or 2 sentences. Also try to explain why you think your ms. is a good fit for the journal (for example, because it continues discussion on a topic already published in the journal—name that topic and previous articles).

• REMEMBER: DO NOT SUBMIT A MANUSCRIPT TO MORE THAN ONE JOURNAL AT A TIME.

If you don’t hear anything after a month (if you get no e-mail at all):• Don’t assume the best or the worst.• Send an e-mail to the journal’s editorial

site. DON’T contact the editor at her or his personal e-mail.

• POLITELY state that you’ve submitted a ms. but have not received any confirmation of receipt. Ask if they’ve received the ms. (maybe they haven’t or maybe it’s lost and they’ll look or maybe you made a mistake and it didn’t get submitted after all).

How Long Does It Take?

• It can take 3 months or MORE for an editor to find reviewers, send your ms. out, and get the reviews back in.

• Many reviewers agree but then don’t do the review. It can take an editor 10 OR MORE tries with reviewers to get 3 reviews, believe it or not. This can take up to 6 or more months.

• So, BE PATIENT. But if you hear nothing after 4 months, go ahead and e-mail the journal (not the editor) and POLITELY ask about the status of the ms.

The Decision-Making Process

• After enough reviews are received, an editor or editors reread the ms. themselves and make a decision.

• The decision categories vary by journal but generally they are:– Accept with (minor) revision– Revise and resubmit– Reject with possible resubmission– Reject

Accept with Revision

• This decision is VERY rare. In my career, I’ve only accepted ONE manuscript with minor revisions, and I’ve only had 2 or 3 manuscripts accepted with minor revision.

• At most major journals, fewer than 5% of all manuscripts that are eventually published (1 out of every 20) are “Accept with Revision.” This probably means that less than 1% of all manuscripts submitted are accepted with (minor) revision.

• This percentage is higher for regional and perhaps very specialized journals.

Revise and Resubmit

• This decision is also not common (perhaps 20%-30% of reviewed manuscripts), but it is the decision that all authors typically hope for.

• What does it mean?– An editor is usually interested in publishing

your paper but there are problems you need to fix.

– This is GOOD NEWS. If you get a “revise and resubmit” decision, you should almost definitely revise and resubmit.

Revise and Resubmit, Cont’d.• If you get a revise-and-resubmit decision,

what should you do?1. Celebrate!2. Read the reviewers’ and editors’ comments carefully. Some

editors will write long letters outlining what you need to do to revise; others write shorter comments and refer to the reviewers more.

3. Keep your temper. Sometimes you’ll completely disagree with the reviewers or the editor. You need to decide if you can revise to meet their requirements. ALMOST ALWAYS you should agree even if you are reluctant.

4. IT IS A SIGN OF MATURITY as a researcher and writer to take criticism constructively.

5. Send the journal an email stating whether you plan to revise or not. If you plan to revise, outline your understanding of what must be done.

REMEMBER

• Journal editors are busy people who don’t have a lot of time or energy to deal with temperamental authors.

• If an editor sends you a Revise and Resubmit decision, they’re willing to work with you. You should be willing to work with them.

• Do a good job of revising, making all the changes that are requested.

• Include a letter in your resubmission explaining how you’ve tried to respond to the revisions.

Reject with Possible Resubmission

• This is not a common decision (10%-20% of mss.).

• If you get this decision, the editor and reviewers think there may be something publishable in your work, but it needs major rewriting, not just revision.

• You need to read the reviewers’ and editors’ comments very carefully and decide if you can make all the changes needed.

• If you can make these changes and are willing to rewrite, it may be worthwhile to make them. Editors usually treat a manuscript like this as a new manuscript and send it out to new reviewers.

Reject

• In most major journals, 50% or more manuscripts sent out for review are rejected after the first round of review.

• If your ms. is rejected it’s usually because:– The ms. was not a good fit after all;– There were serious problems with your writing (ungrammatical,

argument not sound, confusing)– There were serious problems with your study (your

methodology was flawed or your don’t have the evidence to support your claims)

• If the decision is to Reject, there’s no hope with this journal. Read the comments, try to revise, and send the ms. out to another journal.

Minimizing Your Frustration

• The frustration that many authors feel with publishing in peer-reviewed journals often comes because their manuscript is not a good fit with the journal they are trying to publish in.

• You can minimize this frustration by being honest with yourself about the overall quality and purpose of your ms. and selecting a journal based on the quality of fit and NOT on how prestigious the journal is.