There are increasing opportunities for humanities and social science undergraduate students to begin professionalizing their academic writing and publishing careers in their fields. This guide collates information from humanities and social science professors to introduce students to the ins and outs of academic publishing.

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The below is a general introduction to undergraduate publishing. 

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To begin preparing for academic publication, you should take your work, i.e. course papers or other research projects, to conferences. When you present at conferences, there are several benefits:

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• Conferences give a tangible goal to which you may hold yourself accountable, i.e. to complete versions of your project by deadlines

• Feedback from other professionals in the field may help you to identify the successes, gaps, and opportunities for further research in your argument

• Hearing others’ presentations will help you to stay updated and informed about new theories, discoveries, and research occurring in your field, and this context will also help you to knowledgably frame your article.

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When identifying potential conferences, aim to bring your work to the experts in your field. You might start with a conference hosted at your university or a local university. From here, you should seek to present at a respected regional or national conference, where you may interact with a broader range of established experts in your field.

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Once you have identified your target conference, you will need to submit an abstract proposal. Explore guidelines and tips for writing conference abstracts using our Abstract Writing Workshop Handout.

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Funding for travel expenses is available to Department of Humanities & Politics students through the DHP Scholar Fund. All NSU students may also apply for funding through the Undergraduate Student Government Association Professional Development Grants.

 

Below is specific information from your professors on how to find relevant conference "call for papers," or CFPs, in your field. For more on preparing for conferences, see the Style Us webpages on conference etiquette and conventions: https://nsudhp.wixsite.com/styleusconference.

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Once you have decided that you would like to write for journal publications, you should identify target journals. Target journals may help you to identify writing styles and conventions upheld in your field. Learning the conventions of academic writing in your field is massively assisted by reading the journal articles published in your field. To this end, you can identify a few respected journals in your field and begin looking to their articles to model your own work.

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Since different journals have slightly different aims, you should also identify the specific journal to which you intend to submit your article. Studying the style and conventions of articles in that journal will help to give you tangible examples of what your paper might look like. It is important that your writing goals and style be consistent with the goals and aims of the journal in which you’d like to publish. You may find descriptions of a journal’s mission and scope on their website.

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Below is specific information from your professors on the top journals in your field as well as options for undergraduate journals, or journals that focus specifically on publishing undergraduate work.

 

There are also methods you can use to identify journals on your own. As a general rule of thumb, when you are looking for a journal to publish in, you should look for one that:

• is peer-reviewed

• is published or distributed by a respected publisher, university press, or editors

• has a reasonable ratio of acceptances

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Tip: To identify known publishers, university presses, and editors, make a list of those that recur in your own research bibliographies.

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Tip: You may also look to a journal’s acceptance rates as another kind of indication for a journal’s quality. Generally speaking, a journal with 50% acceptance rates or higher indicate a less than desirable quality while journals with a 5% acceptance rate indicate high exclusivity. However, consider this information with discretion. It is possible that a journal with an extremely niche or avant-garde focus, and thus smaller population of scholars, may tend to have a higher acceptance rate, and journals with extremely exclusive acceptance rates do not necessarily imply works of greater intelligence or labor. That said, journals with around 25%-33% acceptance rates are typically appropriate targets for early scholars.

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Tip: Detailed information about any properly registered journal can be found in a directory of periodicals. A directory of periodicals can tell you: who publishes the journal; who the editors are; where the journal is published; when the journal began publishing; how often they publish; whether they are open access or require subscriptions; how long it takes to review submissions; how many authors submit articles per year versus how many articles are published per year; and more. Below is specific information from your professors on how to find the directory of periodicals relevant to your field.

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Once you have submitted an article to a journal for consideration, it will take time to hear back.

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First keep in mind that most journals require that you not submit your article elsewhere while it is under review. Submitting an article to multiple journals at a time is called a “simultaneous submission.” While some journals allow simultaneous submissions, most do not. Submitting simultaneously when a journal has asked contributors not to is considered unprofessional.

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Journals typically provide feedback on your article anywhere from 3 months to one year after submission. A well-run journal will announce what their typical turnaround time is on their website. You should refrain from asking journal editors for updates within this timeframe.

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Feedback from journals may take several forms. Journals may give you one of several responses, including:

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• “Rejected” – If your article has been rejected, you may request comments from the reviewers (if comments were not already included). Use these comments to consider further revisions on your paper. Then send your article out again to another journal. Rejections will happen. Articles may be rejected if they do not speak within the journal’s scope, do not adhere to submission guidelines, and/or require further research and revision.

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• “Rejected: Revise and Resubmit” – Journals may reject the article but invite authors to “revise and resubmit.” This means that the reviewers or editors found merit in the article but also determined that there are deficits in research, clarity, structure, style, etc. that are too weighty to be easily addressed in their editing process. You may choose to revise according to their notes and resubmit to the same journal or you may submit elsewhere.

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• “Accepted” – Articles that have been accepted will still go through a process of editing, sometimes through several rounds of review by the content, copy, and managing editors of the journal. However, the reviewers and editors have found merit in your article and determined that any necessary edits are manageable. Well-run journals will have quality editors that will help you to polish your article for publication.

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You hold the copyrights to your work during the submission process. Once your article has been accepted, the journal will provide you with a publishing contract that will include their proposed agreement for copyright. In publishing through their journal, you must share certain rights. Some journals will allow you to freely republish the article from their journal (e.g. if you were to write a book and wanted to include the already published article as a chapter) while others will request some restrictions.

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