Getting Published

If you are contacted by an unknown publisher soliciting your work, or if you are considering publishing in an unfamiliar journal, you should carefully evaluate the publisher to ensure it is legitimate. For some useful criteria, see Evaluating Publishers.

The image contains a structured checklist divided into three colorful sections: red, orange, and green, each representing a step in the process of choosing trusted publishers and journals for research. The first section, labeled "THINK," is red and features an exclamation mark icon, asking, "Are you submitting your research to a trusted publisher or journal?" The second section, labeled "CHECK," is orange with a check mark icon, instructing to "Use our check list to assess the publisher or journal." The third section, labeled "SUBMIT," is green with a forward arrow icon, stating, "Only if you can answer ‘yes’ to the questions on our check list." Across the top, text encourages using these checklists. At the bottom, a URL, "Visit: thinkchecksubmit.org," is presented.

Choosing a publication venue can be a complex decision. Consider your goals for what kind of impact you want your publication to have - who will benefit most from your research? How will they discover and access your work? Keep this in mind as you evaluate potential publishing options.

Access

The ease of access can determine how broadly an article is read, cited and discussed. The broader the access to a scholarly work, the greater its potential readership.

Access to subscription-based publications is limited because of the fees charged to subscribe and read. Open access publications are available to anyone with an internet connection, in any part of the world, not just at well-funded universities.

Costs

Publications cost money to produce, regardless of their model. How these costs are covered varies widely from one publication to another. A publication may charge low subscription rates simply to cover the production costs and nothing more, charge very high subscription rates to maximize their profits, charge authors additional fees for images, figures or formatting, be made open access by substitution subscription costs with an "author fee" or "article processing charge" (APC), or cover all publication costs by charging an institution, rather than author, a fee.

Fees associated with publishing may be going to more than just the costs of publishing. That revenue may

• support other activities of scholarly societies,
• offset costs of open access publications for authors from developing nations, or
• support the profit margins of for-profit publishers.

Author Rights

A standard publication agreement often requires an author to transfer all copyrights to the publisher. Authors may then be unable to

• post their own article on their own website,
• deposit their article in an institutional repository, or
• freely distribute a copy to students for course reading.

For more information, skip to the Author Rights portion of this guide.

Publication Profile and Impact Factor

Perceived quality of scholarship matters when it comes to getting hired and promoted, but is also highly subjective. The prestige of the publisher may be used as a proxy for the quality of a monograph or journal. A journal’s overall Impact Factor may also be used as a proxy for the quality of an individual article. Both methods typically advantage long-standing, well-known publication venues.

Other quantitative measures that are based on traditional citation statistics also favor established, familiar publications. Explore more at the Citation Research and Impact Metrics library guide.

(Originally from "Choose a publication venue" from the University of Minnesota Libraries)

While the majority of open access journals publish articles for free, many of the most well-known open access publishers do require that authors pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) to offset the cost of publication. The ASU Library supports ASU authors through our relationships with publishers as well as consulting with authors to identify appropriate publication options that will expand the reach and impact of their work.

We are able to provide waivers or discounts on APCs with certain publishers as a result of the following partnerships and subscriptions:

Some funding agencies will allow these charges to be paid from grant funds, but of course, not all authors are funded. Many publishers will grant a waiver of the APC upon request if the author is not able to pay, so it is always worth checking to see if that’s a possibility. In addition, there are other ways you can make your work openly available for free.

From the Modern Language Association's Advice for Authors:

"Authors should choose prospective publishers carefully. By consulting The Directory of the Association of American University Presses, Books in Print, Literary Market Place, catalogs of academic and commercial publishing houses, library catalogs, and presses' advertisements in the most recent Program issue of PMLA, authors can get a sense of the goals, target audiences, and special interests of a number of presses. Especially for younger scholars, it is essential to consult with colleagues and other knowledgeable persons concerning the prestige of particular presses, the efficiency with which presses process manuscripts, the usual time from acceptance to publication, the quality of advertising and marketing, and royalties." (emphasis added)

Reviewing publisher catalogs is a good way to get a general sense of the culture of a press and the topics they are interested in. If you're attending conferences, you can set up meetings with editors to review a book idea and discuss whether this might be of interest. Another option is to contact editors directly with book ideas, written as a long essay (in the style of the press's book catalog) stating the problem, what are you proposing, and how it is yours. Do this before writing the entire book - it's better to work with an editor while you're writing the book, not after. You can also be in contact with more than one publisher until you decide to accept an offer - just be honest that you're investigating multiple options.

Typically, it's easy to locate the catalogs on the publisher's website, but here are some examples:

Undergraduates interested in publishing their research also need to evaluate journals to ensure that the journal, and its publisher, are reputable. Consult with your advisor for suggestions or if you have questions. However, these are some sources for journals that publish undergraduate research specifically.