This page sets out guidelines on how to get your research published as an article in a journal. Standard high quality publication of your work is not easy but there are certain things to consider if you want to improve your chances of success at getting published in a AESS journals.
Why have you considered publication?
- Do you have a contribution to make? i.e. this is filling a gap in the research or is it novel and innovative work. The questions to ask yourself are who is going to be interested, how does it build on what we already know, how significant is your message, and how sure are you of your findings?
- Is it required for your career as a researcher?
- Is it required as part of your current role as an academic?
Which kind of submissions will be accepted?
- A high risk submission could be a paper with too long a conversion, one that is a doctorate thesis or conference paper, one that does not match the aim and scope of the journal, one that isn’t formatted according to the journal guidelines and one where part or all of the paper is published elsewhere.
- A low risk submission will usually be papers that are written according to the scope and aim of the journal, are formatted correctly and refer to preceding work published in the journal and elsewhere.
Which journal should you submit to?
- Does your research fit the journal’s aim and scope?
- What type of submission is it? Empirical research, review paper, brief report, book review. Does the journal publish these kinds of paper?
Tips before submitting:
- Read the journal’s aims and scope.
- Read the journal’s articles.
- Consult with colleagues.
- Discuss your paper with the journal’s editorial team.
What should you do to prepare your manuscript?
- Read the manuscript submission guidelines. The AESS website hosts instructions for authors for all our journals.
- Make every effort to improve the quality of the manuscript before submission.
Manuscript submission guidelines checklist
- Have you used the right reference style?
- Have you stayed within the word limit?
- Have you written up the contribution of the study?
- Have you proofread it before submitting?
- Have you provided a cover letter?
- Have you considered including supplemental data? Will it add value to the content?
- When you think it is ready and you have ticked off the above checklist, submit your article via the relevant journal’s submission site on our website.
What happens next?
Depending on the journal, your article will be considered by the Editor/s and/or Associate Editors/Journal Manager and two reviewers, often from the Editorial Board or externally invited reviewers. If it is submitted to an online system, you will receive an acknowledgement.
There are four possible outcomes:
- Desk reject - Your paper will not be sent out for review due to a high similarity index, low quality research, it not fitting the aim and scope of the journal, an inadequate literature base, weak methodology, poor analysis/contribution or poor English.
- Conditional accept with major revision – Depending on the level of revision required, it may need to be resubmitted as a new manuscript. This may be due to several factors.
- Conditional accept with minor revision – These papers generally do get accepted, provided the minor revision is made by the author.
- Accept without change – This outcome is extremely rare.
How you should handle revisions:
- Cover the issues raised point by point.
- Highlight in different color what you have done to make the changes.
- Provide a point by point covering note to each referee with page number citations.
- If you cannot meet all criticisms or complete all the changes, point out and explain why.
- Be positive and constructive.
- After acceptance you will be asked to pay the publication fee. If you want to publish your article as open access, the publication fee is higher than the normal fee.
- Don’t overreact. The criticisms are there to improve your paper and your work.
- Carefully read the referees’ report and the Editor’s letter.
- Try to focus on why the changes need to be made: too focused, wrong journal, fundamentally flawed or a more specific problemTry and re-work the paper.
- Submit to an alternative journal if necessary.
- Write the paper for a journal according to the journal guidelines if that is the issue that needs to be addressed.
What happens once your paper has been accepted?
- Once your paper is accepted for publication, it will be forwarded to the production team for processing.
- Your paper will be copyedited in the journal’s style. Copy-edits your paper in the journal style
- The formatted file will be sent to you for a final review.
- The team will correct any errors you have identified. You will get a PDF file of your article by e-mail.