Selecting an Appropriate
Publication Outlet
Diane L. Schallert
The University of Texas at Austin
with acknowledgement of P. Karen Murphy
of the Pennsylvania State University for help on slide content
Identifying the Possibilities
 Go to the library and thumb through the
current periodicals
 Scan the journals in your literature
review or reference list
 Reference Guides:
 Journal Citation Reports
 Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory
 Directory of Open Access Journals
 Cabell’s Directory
Selecting Among the
Possibilities: A Model
(Knight & Steinbach, 2008)
Likelihood of Timely
Acceptance
 Topic centrality
 Methodological alignment
 Harmony between your manuscript
and a journal
 Input from colleagues
Topic Centrality
Has the journal published articles on the
same subject as your manuscript?
If not, has the journal at least published
articles on the topics that serve as your
theoretical basis?
Is your manuscript consistent with the
journal’s scope, aim, and editorial
statements?
 AERJ: Standards for Reporting on Empirical
Social Science Research in AERA Publications
Aim and Scope: AERJ
The American Educational Research Journal has as its purpose to carry original empirical and theoretical
studies and analyses in education. The editors seek to publish articles from a wide variety of academic
disciplines and substantive fields; they are looking for clear and significant contributions to the
understanding and/or improvement of educational processes and outcomes. Manuscripts not appropriate
for submission to this journal include essays, reviews, course evaluations, and brief reports of studies to
address a narrow question.
The Social and Institutional Analysis section of AERJ (AERJ-SIA) publishes scholarly research that addresses
significant political, cultural, social, economic, and organizational issues in education. This section
publishes research analyzing the broader contextual and organizational factors affecting teaching and
learning, the links between those factors and the nature and processes of schooling, and the ways that
such "external" domains are conceptualized in research, policy, and practice. The section invites
manuscripts that advance the theoretical understandings of the social and institutional contexts of
education and that encompass the diverse communities of schooling and educational research to achieve
social justice in education. The Social and Institutional Analysis section welcomes research across a
wide range of methodological paradigms, including ethnographic, historical, narrative, legal,
experimental/quantitative, critical, and interpretive approaches; the section also invites studies that make
the nature and uses of educational research itself the subject of social and cultural inquiry.
The Teaching, Learning, and Human Development section of AERJ (AERJ-TLHD) publishes research articles
that explore the processes and outcomes of teaching, learning, and human development at all educational
levels and in both formal and informal settings. This section also welcomes policy research related to
teaching, learning, and learning to teach. It publishes articles that represent a wide range of academic
disciplines and use a variety of research methods.
Methodological Alignment
Does your manuscript conform to the
methodological predilections of the journal
(e.g., qualitative, quantitative, multiple
experiments, review)?
Has the journal published articles using
your manuscript’s methodology before?
Has the journal published methodological
guidelines and have you followed them?
Methodology: JXE Guidelines
In consideration of contemporary thinking about
statistical significance tests, reflected in the 1993
JXE theme issue Guidelines for Contributors 83(Vol.
61, No. 4), authors are encouraged to use the phrase
“statistical significance” rather than only
“significance” whenever referring to the results of
inferential tests. Furthermore, authors are required to
report and interpret magnitude-of-effect measures in
conjunction with every p-value that is reported (see
the Snyder & Lawson article in the 1993 [Vol. 61,
No. 4] JXE theme issue on statistical significance
testing).
Harmony between the
Manuscript and the Journal
Is the manuscript consistent with the
disciplinary focus of the journal?
How many times is the journal cited in
your manuscript?
Is the typical time from submission to
publication sufficiently short for your
needs?
Review Lags, Revision lags, Copyediting lags,
and Backlogs
Determining Time to Publication
Time to Publication = Review Cycle Time Delay +
Publication Time Delay
 Review Cycle Time Delay = f (x, y, z)
 Where
x = anticipated average review time
y = anticipated number of review cycles
z = your ability to address the feedback
 Publication Time Delay = g (p, q)
 Where
p = publisher’s processing time once manuscript is
complete
q = backlog of finished articles awaiting publication
More on Harmony…
What is the journal’s acceptance rate? If it is
low, is the manuscript appropriate for an
announced theme issue where acceptance
might be higher?
 Acceptance rate/rejection rate is a measure of the
journal’s competitiveness (see Cabell’s Directory)
Does your manuscript conform to the
Instructions to Authors (e.g., prose, length,
tables, figures, references)?
Does manuscript target audience match that of
the journal (e.g., national or international)?
Harmony Answers:
A Few Good Sources
 Impressions from colleagues
 Cabell’s Directory
 Journal editor, editorial board
members, or managing editor
 Journal and/or its web page
Predicted Impact of the
Published Article
 Journal quality
 Author (You)
 Readership and/or availability
 …and, of course, timeliness in
publication
Journal Quality
 Is the journal peer-reviewed?
 Are the journal’s editor, reviewers, and
publisher academically respected?
 Is the journal ranked or rated by your
institution?
 What is the journal’s impact factor (e.g.,
ISI Journal Citation Reports or
SCOPUS)?
Impact Factor
 The impact factor of a journal is calculated based on a
two-year period. It can be viewed as the average number
of citations in a year to all papers published in a journal
during the two preceding years.
2003 Journal Impact = A/ B
A = the number of times articles published in 2001-2 were
cited in indexed journals during 2003
B = the number of "citable items" (usually articles, reviews,
proceedings or notes; not editorials and letters-to-theEditor) published in 2001-2
A convenient way of thinking about it is that a journal that is
cited once, on average, for each article published has an
IF of 1 in the expression above.
Author (You)
 What are the career benefits for
publishing in a particular journal?
 How important is journal ranking in
your tenure and promotion process?
 Will the data have less impact if they
take a long time to publish and can
you afford that much time?
Readership and Availability
 What is the journal’s circulation (e.g.,
regional, national, or international)?
 Is the journal available through the Internet
or widely available via electronic indexes in
university libraries (e.g., PsychInfo)?
 Is it an SSCI journal?
 Is the journal associated with a society or
organization (e.g., AERA) that you value?
References
 Impact factor. (2009, March 31). In Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:43, April 1, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Impact_factor&oldid=280898895
 Knight, L. V., & Steinbach, T. A. (2008). Selecting an
appropriate publication outlet: A comprehensive model of
journal selection criteria for researchers in a broad range
of academic disciplines. International Journal of Doctoral
Studies, 3, 59-79.
 Sarli, B. (2008). Preparing for publication. Bernard
Becker Medical Library: Washington University School of
Medicine.