Choosing the Right Publisher for Your Academic Writing

Choosing the Right Publisher for Your Academic Writing
As you are writing up the results of your research you may already have a good idea of where you would like to publish your book, paper, report or other kind of document. On the other hand, your focus may be primarily on your research and writing, leaving decisions about where to place your work until it is finished. Whether you wish to tailor your document to a particular venue as you write or plan to consider publication possibilities once you know exactly how your text has turned out, there will come a time when you will need to choose a good home for your writing, and at that point there will be many things to consider. The following list outlines some of the most common concerns.

• The content of your document should be a primary consideration. The publisher, journal, essay collection, web site, blog or other publishing venue should be appropriate for the range and specialisation of your work. Even the best fit may require some adjustment on your part – the discipline-specific terminology you use, for instance, may need to be toned down or more thoroughly defined to ensure accessibility for the anticipated readers. Be sure to read mission statements carefully and familiarise yourself with the material published by the venues you are considering.
• The type of document you have written will narrow the possibilities considerably. A book manuscript will not be suitable for a scholarly journal or a blog, and while most academic and scientific journals will publish research papers, not all will be interested in literature reviews or case studies. An examination of author instructions and the content of previous publications will answer many of your questions, but if you are in doubt about whether your work will meet requirements, contacting someone able to make such decisions will probably resolve the issue.
• The length of your document is often a more important consideration than one might expect. Blog posts tend to be very short indeed – no more than 1,000 words in most cases – and some publishers and journals have rigid word or page limits, usually for the entire document, but occasionally for its individual parts as well. In such cases, your manuscript will need to work within those limits, and if doing so will require more cutting and editing than would be healthy for the content, structure and overall argument, you will probably need to seek elsewhere to place your work.
• The number of references, tables, figures, notes, appendices and the like is another concern. Some journals will set a maximum for the number of sources used in a particular type of paper. Some publishers, both presses and journals, will not allow footnotes, endnotes or appendices. In many cases the format of these elements is a concern as well. A publisher might permit the use of endnotes but not footnotes, and most publishing venues will have guidelines and restrictions regarding the way in which tables and figures are laid out and labelled. If your work allows very little flexibility in these elements of your document, you will need to attend carefully to the author instructions and choose a publishing option that will enable the best presentation of your research.
• Accessibility is always worth considering. How wide an audience will your writing reach via a particular venue? Will it be published in one country or more? Is the journal you are considering open access or are its articles available only to paying customers? Do these considerations matter to you, your employer or any funding body that supports your research? The answers to these questions may eliminate certain possibilities.
• Finally, the reputation and quality of the publisher, journal or web site should be considered very carefully. Most scholars would prefer, for instance, to publish their papers in top-tier journals with excellent citation records, but one must also be realistic. Submitting your writing to receive no more than a rejection from the ‘best’ journal in your field will be a waste of time, especially if your paper would be a better fit for a slightly less prestigious journal. On the other hand, posting your research on a blog that is of questionable quality where it may not reach the readers you anticipate might prove pointless or detrimental even if you are able to get your work online quickly.