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My experience How journals work Choosing a journal Preparing a manuscript for submission

Publishing Journal Articles Simon Hix Prof. of European & Comparative Politics LSE Government Department. My experience How journals work Choosing a journal Preparing a manuscript for submission Revising a manuscript Ethics What gets published? (what editors and reviewers look for)

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My experience How journals work Choosing a journal Preparing a manuscript for submission

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  1. Publishing Journal ArticlesSimon HixProf. of European & Comparative PoliticsLSE Government Department • My experience • How journals work • Choosing a journal • Preparing a manuscript for submission • Revising a manuscript • Ethics • What gets published? (what editors and reviewers look for) • General strategy

  2. My Experience • Co-editor of European Union Politics (no.7 in political science in 2006 JCRs) • Editorial Board of 2 other top 10 journals in political science: British Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics • 33 articles published in international peer reviewed journals in the last 14 years • 11 in top 10 journals in political science

  3. How Journals Work 1. Editors receive submission and decide whether to send it out for review, and who to send it to 2. Usually ‘double-blind review’ 3. Evaluation form for reviews, e.g. - contribute to body of knowledge in the journal - coherent/logic argument - new data and new findings - quality of empirical analysis 4. Decision: Reject, R&R, Minor Revisions, Accept 5. Timing: Approx. 3 months for each review round -> can be 2+ years from initial submission to final publication

  4. Choosing a Journal • Identify the top 5-10 ‘general’ journals in your discipline • Use the ISI Journal Citation Reports, and “Impact Factors” of journals • Identify the top 2-5 ‘sub-field’ journals in your particular field • Write down a rank order of where you would like your paper published: aim high first ! • Do not submit to a journal that is not listed in the Social Science Citation Index / Arts and Humanities Citation Index / Science Citation Index

  5. Preparing a Manuscript for Submission • Copy the ‘House Style’ of the journal • Double-spaced, font size, margin sizes etc. • Headings style • Referencing style • Footnotes or Endnotes • Spelling style • Word limit • Figures and Tables style (usually at the end of the article) • For US-based journals, submit in “US Letter” (e.g. pdf) not A4 !! • Do everything to make it look like you’ve submitted 100s of papers to international peer-reviewed journals

  6. Revising a Manuscript • If you get a revise and resubmit • do everything every reviewer asks you to do (do not argue!) • write a letter to the editor summarising your revisions • attach a memo, where you explain in great detail how your revised paper has addressed the suggestions of each reviewer (e.g. 1-2 pages per reviewer, and start each reviewer on a separate page). • If you get a rejection • do not simply send the paper unrevised to another journal !! • spend time addressing as many of the original reviewers’ comments as possible

  7. Ethics • Unique Submission • do not submit a paper to more than one journal at the same time • you will get ‘blackballed’ • Only submit highly polished papers, which have been through several revisions before initial submission • reviewers resent being used as free ‘PhD supervisors’ ! • Do not challenge the decision of the editor • Be prepared to make your data publicly-available • If a journal accepts one of your papers for publication, be prepared to review papers for that journal • Otherwise, editors will tell each other not to accept any of your papers ever again

  8. What Gets Published • Arguments and findings that are generalisable • Contributions to several bodies of knowledge • Contributions to specific debates/findings already published in a journal • New data • Quantitative or ‘mixed-methods’ rather than qualitative

  9. General Strategy • Turn papers into ‘working papers’, circulate them, present them at conferences, get plenty of feedback, and only then submit to a journal • Get yourself known in your subfield, try to identify the editors and board members of key journals, and try to meet them at conferences or see them present • Plan at least 2 journal articles from your PhD • Start early (e.g. in the first year of your PhD !!), as getting something published takes a long time

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