Research Guides: Scholarly Communications : Publish Your Work

Publish Your Work

A Quick Guide for Journal Submissions for Undergraduate Students

Publishing your research in a journal is a great way to contribute to your field and build your academic credentials. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started:

Work with a Mentor – Seek guidance from your research advisor or faculty mentor. They can provide valuable feedback and help refine your paper.
Choose the Right Journal – Look for journals that accept research in your field. Consider the journals you used to gather your research or the associations affiliated with your field; these are a good place to start.
Follow Submission Guidelines – Each journal has specific formatting and submission requirements. Carefully review them before preparing your paper.
Revise and Proofread – Ensure your research is clear, well-structured, and free of errors. Consider peer feedback before submitting.
Submit and Respond to Feedback – When submitting to a peer-reviewed journal, be prepared for revision requests. Take the time to address comments carefully to strengthen your paper.
Stay Persistent – If your paper gets rejected, don’t be discouraged! Use the feedback to improve your work and submit it to another journal.

By following these steps, you can successfully publish your research and make a meaningful contribution to your academic community. In addition to journal submissions, consider alternative publishing avenues such as social media or website design through Davidson Digital Domains.

Resources for Identifying Journals

Council on Undergraduate Research
There are many journals that focus specifically on publishing undergraduate research. The list on the Council on Undergraduate Research is a helpful start. Review a journal's website, published articles, and the author submission guidelines before submitting your work.

DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
Index of diverse open access journals from around the world.
MLA Directory of Periodicals
Searchable listing of periodicals indexed by the Modern Language Association International Bibliography.
Web of Science
An interdisciplinary resource with journals, books, and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Access is restricted to current faculty and staff and currently-enrolled students of Davidson College only.

Open Policy Finder
This site is useful to identify journals in your subject area by adding a term to the "Journal" search. Also helps authors make informed and confident decisions in open access publication and compliance.

Publishing Open Access

Publishing open access means your work is freely available to anyone, anywhere—no subscriptions required. This helps more people read, share, and build on your ideas, increasing your visibility around the world. The Davidson College library supports a variety of open access projects and encourages open access publishing. Our library has deals with some journal publishers that let us use our subscription payments to cover the cost to publish this way. This means that as a Davidson College student (also available to faculty and staff), you can publish your work open access without having to pay any fees yourself.

The library website provides tips on the Open Access Guide to assist you with your options when it comes to open access publishing. This is a great starting point when looking for publishing opportunities. Seen in the screenshot below, on the left hand side of the guide is a list of the publishers with whom the library offers assistance with article processing charges (APCs) to publish your work in a journal under an open access license.