Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Eight Common Misconceptions About Psychology Papers
- 2 How to Generate, Evaluate, and Sell Your Ideas for Research and Papers
- 3 Literature Research
- 4 Writing a Literature Review
- 5 Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper
- 6 A Word About Content, Language, and Style
- 7 Commonly Misused Words
- 8 American Psychological Association Guidelines for Psychology Papers
- 9 Guidelines for Data Presentation
- 10 What Makes a Good Paper Great? Standards for Evaluating Psychology Papers
- 11 Ethics in Research and Writing
- 12 Submitting a Paper to a Journal
- 13 How to Make Your Paper Even Better: Proofreading, Revising, and Editing
- 14 Writing a Grant or Contract Proposal
- 15 How to Find a Book Publisher
- 16 Writing a Lecture
- 17 Article Writing 101
- References
- Appendix: Sample Psychology Paper
- Index
12 - Submitting a Paper to a Journal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Eight Common Misconceptions About Psychology Papers
- 2 How to Generate, Evaluate, and Sell Your Ideas for Research and Papers
- 3 Literature Research
- 4 Writing a Literature Review
- 5 Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper
- 6 A Word About Content, Language, and Style
- 7 Commonly Misused Words
- 8 American Psychological Association Guidelines for Psychology Papers
- 9 Guidelines for Data Presentation
- 10 What Makes a Good Paper Great? Standards for Evaluating Psychology Papers
- 11 Ethics in Research and Writing
- 12 Submitting a Paper to a Journal
- 13 How to Make Your Paper Even Better: Proofreading, Revising, and Editing
- 14 Writing a Grant or Contract Proposal
- 15 How to Find a Book Publisher
- 16 Writing a Lecture
- 17 Article Writing 101
- References
- Appendix: Sample Psychology Paper
- Index
Summary
If you write a paper that you believe makes a substantial contribution to psychological knowledge, you may want to consider submitting the paper for publication. This chapter will give you some information to help you decide on a journal. It also contains a list of the most important journals sorted according to subjects. We will give you an overview of what you need to do to submit your paper and what goes on behind the scenes in an editor's office.
DECIDING ON A JOURNAL
If you decide to submit a paper for publication, the first step you must take is to decide on a journal to which you want to submit the paper. Eight considerations should enter into your decision:
Quality
Journals vary widely in quality. Some journals publish papers that do little more than fill up journal space; other journals publish only outstanding contributions to the literature. Better journals generally have higher rejection rates for submitted papers, so the probability of a paper's being accepted in such journals is lower.
One way to evaluate quality is to look at the impact factor of the journal. In Point 8, we describe how you can determine the journal's impact factor, or the extent to which papers in the journal are cited by authors in the field.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychologist's CompanionA Guide to Writing Scientific Papers for Students and Researchers, pp. 248 - 280Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010