Publishing: Publishing for Graduate Students

Academic writing produced by graduate students can be submitted to traditional journals as well as hybrid journals for undergraduate and graduate student work. If you choose to submit your work to a traditional journal, you will have more to consider when selecting a journal. This form of academic publishing is the method you'll use if you continue to publish research once you receive your degree. 

Journals will have different expectations for graduate student work. You will be treated as a peer within your field rather than a developing scholar. This means your work will have a more rigorous review process, and you will benefit from a higher level of engagement with your published work. 

Below are a few tips on academic publishing as a graduate student, as well as a few resources we recommend to help you succeed. 

Perspectives on Politics
A peer-reviewed journal with four issues per year. Perspectives is a hybrid open-access journal that accepts submissions on a rolling basis. Submission guidelines are given here. Manuscripts must not exceed 12,000 words. The material must be related to political science.

IPSR: International Political Science Review
A peer-reviewed journal with five issues per year. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, and calls for submission will be posted on the site for special issues. Submission guidelines are given on the site. Manuscripts must not exceed 8,000 words. The material must be related to political science, although special issues will focus on a specific theme.

Comparative Political Studies
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis for fifteen yearly issues. Submission guidelines are on the site. Manuscripts must not exceed 12,000 words. The material must be related to a political phenomenon or casual process.

Theory & Event
An exclusively online peer-reviewed journal with four issues per yea. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis and evaluated over a ten-week review period. Submission guidelines are given on the site. Manuscripts must not exceed 10,000 words. The material must be related to political theory.

Human Rights Quarterly
A prestigious peer-reviewed journal with four issues per year that accepts submissions on a rolling basis, Submission guidelines are given on the site. Manuscripts must not exceed 10,000 words. The material must be related to human rights and political analysis.

When submitting your work to a traditional journal, you should be careful about which journal you select.

The primary recommender for journal selection is impact factor. Impact factor is a proxy by which you can understand the relevance of a particular journal within its field. To better understand impact factor and where it comes from, this guide has a useful breakdown of discovering impact factor.

As a graduate student, impact factor is something to consider but it is not the most important aspect of a given journal. Any journal with a significantly high impact factor will receive a high number of submissions, making it a competitive option that might select more polished, expert work. You want to look for newer journals or specialized journals with a decent impact factor. These will be more likely to accept your submission. 

Any given work can only be submitted to one journal at a time, so carefully consider the submission guidelines before you submit and determine whether the journal is likely to publish your work. A good way to determine whether your work is a good fit is to familiarize yourself with pieces the journal has published in the past. Make sure you read an issue or two of a journal before submitting your work.

Things to keep in mind when selecting a journal:

• Will you retain partial copyright?
  • Take a look at this guide to better understand the role of copyright in academic publishing.
• Should you submit part of your dissertation?
  • If you plan on revising your dissertation and publishing it as a book, be aware that future publishers might not want to invest in content that's already available.
• Would collaborating with another scholar be beneficial for your research?
  • Journals might be more likely to accept a work that you have co-written with an established academic within the field, such as a senior professor.
  • However, your name will not be first on the paper even if you have contributed the majority of the work and hiring committees may not give you full credit for the publication.
• What is your time frame?
  • Prestigious, well-known journals may take several months to reply to a submission.
  • If you have over a year before entering the job market, you may have time to try submitting your work with such a journal. This will give you time to submit elsewhere if your work is rejected.

Traditional journals often have submission fees, so if you're interested in alternative methods of publishing you might try publishing with open-access journals, depositing your work in an academic repository, or attend a conference where proceedings are published.

Visit this guide to learn more about open-access journals and public repositories at the University of Washington.