How to get published

Dr Jane Winters (Head of Publications, IHR & Executive Editor, Historical Research)

Why should I publish?

• To get your research known

• To solicit feedback (both from peer reviewers and from readers)

• To contribute to debate in your subject

• To help with your career development

• There is no money in academic publishing

Types of publications

• An article in a scholarly journal

• An academic book (monograph)

• A paper in edited conference proceedings

• Shorter essays, e.g. reviews, surveys and opinion pieces

Publishing strategy

• Get plenty of advice

• Give seminar and conference papers

• Talk to publishers and journal editors

• Enter competitions organised by learned societies and subject organisations

• Give yourself the best chance of success

Journal articles

• For some subjects, e.g. Philosophy, this is the primary form of publication

• Greater opportunity for publication – far more journal articles than monographs are published each year

• Easier to populate your CV• Potentially much wider audience for your

research

A ‘good’ journal article

• Content, of course• Structure and clarity

– Introduction– Context and background– Methodology– Research findings, with examples– Conclusion

• Consider your audience• Title

Article titles

• Deviation and discipline – anti-Trotskyism, Bolshevization and the Spanish Communist party, 1924-3

• A poverty of imagination – George W. Bush’s policy in Latin America

• The legend of Black Friday –

Choosing your journal I

• Amicus Curiae• Bulletin of the Institute of Classical

Studies• Financial Services Newsletter• Historical Research• Journal of Banking Regulation• Journal of Latin American Studies• Journal of Romance Studies• Journal of the Warburg and

Courtauld Institutes• Money Laundering Monitor• Yearbook of the Research Centre

for German & Austrian Exile Studies

• Yeats Annual

Choosing your journal II

• Generalist or specialist– Impact– Waiting time to publication

• Journal ranking• Does a journal have a track record of

publication in your area of research?• Practical concerns

– Reputation for timely publication– Responsive to author enquiries

http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/History_Journal_Response_Times

Choosing your journal III

• Talk to your supervisor and to your colleagues

• Don’t be afraid to contact the editor of the journal

• Some journals, like Historical Research, explicitly encourage submissions from postgraduates

• NEVER submit the same article to more than one journal at a time

The submission – stage I

• The text of your article– Word length– Abstract and keywords– Spacing– Reference style – footnotes, endnotes,

Harvard notes– House style – capitalization, the use of ‘ize’ or

‘ise’, etc.– Policy on figures and tables

http://authorservices.wiley.com/

The submission – stage II

• Sending in your article– Postal submission– Email submission– Online submission– Include your contact details!– Acknowledgement

What happens next?

• Your article is sent to independent assessors/referees for peer review

• Assessors’ reports are compared and collated, and the Editor/Editorial Board makes a final decision

• The report(s) are sent to the author, with the final decision

The decision

• Acceptance with no, or minimal, changes

• Acceptance subject to revision, in line with the assessors’ reports

• Rejection, with an invitation to resubmit following substantial revision

• Rejection

Publication

• You’ll still need to be patient– Send in the final version of your article, fully

converted to house style– Editing and copy-editing – deal promptly with

any questions and queries– Copyright or licensing agreement– Proofs – often need to be turned round in a

week or less– Publication!

Academic books

• Edited collection, often conference proceedings

• Text books

• Monographs – (OED: ‘a detailed written study of a single specialised topic’)

Edited collections & text books

• Papers in edited collections are viewed less favourably than articles published in scholarly journals

• Publishers are increasingly reluctant to take on edited collections

• Acting as the editor is a thankless task

• Don’t think about a text book at this stage of your career

Monographs

• Is a book the most appropriate form of publication for my work?

• Is there genuinely enough substance and originality in my thesis to warrant adapting it for wider publication?

• Am I padding out a long article just for the sake of publishing a book?

Thesis v. book

• Your thesis is not the same as a book

• They do not have the same audience or purpose

• They exhibit a very different approach to referencing

• They will usually vary considerably in length

• The style of writing is very different – at least of the book is to be successful

Choosing a publisher

• Does a particular publisher have a strong track record in your field?

• Does the publisher serve the right market for your book?

• What is the publisher’s reputation – both academic and for efficiency?

• Talk to colleagues and friends about their experiences

http://www.palgrave.com/authors/publishing.asp

http://authornet.cambridge.org/information/proposaluk/hss/

Submitting a proposal I

• Purpose is to convince the press not only that your book is worth publishing, but that they should want to publish it – and the two are not the same thing.

• It will be considered by a commissioning editor or editors, by representatives of sales and marketing and, if it gets to that stage, by academic referees

Submitting a proposal II

• Title

• Brief description

• Content

• Market and competition information – readership

• Practical information

• Author biography

After submission

• Acknowledgement

• Peer review

• Decision

• Acceptance/rejection

• Final approval

• Contract

The final stage

• Congratulations!

• Then the hard work begins …

• And it’s not just finishing your research and writing

Preparing your manuscript

• Preferred house style

• Illustrations– Format – 300dpi tiffs or jpegs (web only

72dpi)– Permissions– Funding

• Camera-ready copy

Camera-ready copy (crc)

• Copy-editing, proof-reading and typesetting are highly skilled jobs

• You will not get detailed guidance from the publisher

• Don’t go for ‘unusual’ font and layout options

• Buy a good style guide

Finishing touches

• Help with the promotion of your own work– Think about journals where it might be

reviewed– Suggest conferences where it might be

marketed– Are there any subject societies or

organisations for whom it might be particularly relevant?