Nuts & Bolts of Scholarly Publishing: Home

This guide is provides supplementary materials for participants in the Nuts and Bolts of Scholarly Publishing workshops -- but is also intended for anyone in the university community who is interested in learning more about scholarly publishing. In this guide, you will find information, guidance, and links to resources on:

• Evaluating Academic Journals:
  • Fit: Determining whether a journal is a good fit for your research;
  • Impact: Assessing the impact of a journal, including citation-based impact factors, altmetrics, and the impact of open access journals;
  • Quality: Considering how a journal relates to standards in the scholarly community, including avoiding deceptive practices.
• Journal Contracts and Copyright:
  • Copyright Basics: Understanding copyright and why it is important to scholarly publishing;
  • Key Parts of a Publishing Contract: Recognizing the key parts of a journal publishing agreement;
  • Deciding to Sign: Considering the implications of a journal publishing contract on author rights;
  • Negotiating: Approaching a publisher to propose changes to a journal publishing agreement.