<p>My professor, a Harvard-educated (BA/Phd) curator on the Pacific Islands at the Field Museum and a leading authority on the anthropology of the Pacific, commended my paper as “publishable” after some tweaking. Specifically, he said: </p>
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<p>I’m seriously considering working on it and submitting it to a journal but the question is to which one(s)? My topic is related to Asian American studies, diaspora, identity, sexuality, gender, colonialism/post-colonialism, race. Any suggestions? Thanks!</p>
<p>I plan to submit it to as many as possible so a “think tank” that could help me come up with as many suggestions as possible would be nice. The thing is… the full scope of my topic is not covered by his expertise. He focuses on Pacific anthropology, which is a large part of my research, but the other part of it is the diaspora, which he doesn’t cover.</p>
<p>I don’t think “diaspora” is a separate academic field. It sounds like you should look at various anthropology, cultural studies, and gender studies journals and pick a few that look like they might publish something like that. Good luck!</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a good idea to submit to multiple journals. They have to send articles out to reviewers and the pool is small. They don’t like to do the processing for an article which may end up being published elsewhere. I suggest you research carefully the most appropriate journal and submit it there. Drop the rest of the list.
A consideration is not whether the journal completely fits your topic but how many readers it has and whether it is (one of) the flagship journal (s) in its field. And that means going with a journal that is more rather than less general. Take a look at some back issues of some journals (American Ethnologist?) and see what kind of articles it has published.</p>
<p>I have no experience whatsoever with article submissions, so thanks for enlightening me, marite. I’ll now focus one where I have the best chances of getting published, and as such, I’ll wait for my professor’s advice on which journal that could be. </p>
<p>Just wondering… is it easier to get published in journals that have a smaller readership and a narrower topic scope, given the presumably greater intensity of the competition for the general (and presumably most prestigious) ones? Common sense tells me so, but I’m not sure if this is actually the case.</p>
<p>Also, do journals typically not care about the author’s level of education? Would some of them not even look at an article if it’s submitted by a non-PhD?</p>
<p>To JHS: Yea, I don’t think there are journals out there that publish work specifically on the diaspora (while it’s not a separate field yet, it’s definitely a categorical research interest on which a lot of scholarship has centered), and my intent was not to look for one; when I mentioned “diaspora,” it was only to clarify that my research doesn’t deal exclusively with the Pacific and consequently to broaden the range of journals that could be suggested (because yes, there are journals out there devoted exclusively to the Pacific). Thanks to marite’s suggestion, though, I’ve learned that targeting more general anthropology journals would be a better strategy.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion that you talk to your professor about this, and that once you and he come up with a suitable list of journals, that you take a look at recent issues of the journals in question to get a good sense of the style and scope of the articles they publish. See, also, if your professor would be willing to give you very specific input so you can tweak your paper in ways that may help in the publication process. Also, be sure to talk with your professor about what your cover letter should look like. </p>
<p>Then go for it! This sounds like a very interesting paper.</p>
<p>Look for a journal with quick turn-around; sometimes the editorial process is protracted and frustrating. You should also start with the more prestigious journals if you think they might accept it, and work your way down. Diaspora studies is quite a hot topic these days. The rule is one at a time; you could get yourself in trouble by submitting to multiple journals. Your professor may know someone on an editorial board and will certainly be familiar with the journals that are likely to be interested.</p>
<p>There is a reference book that I’ve heard of, which is probably available at your university library, explaining the editorial guidelines for all the major (and many, many smaller) journals. It has great info that you might be able to use (percent of submitted papers that are eventually published, fields it publishes about, addresses, contact info, etc.). </p>
<p>You could ask your subject or reference librarian at your University to see if they have it. I did a quick Google search and came up with this, but I don’t remember the title for the life of me. This could be it, as it was the only relevant title that came up when I searched our libraries:</p>
<p>Journal instructions to authors: a compilation of manuscript guidelines from education periodicals
Ed. Barbara Parke</p>
<p>If you are publishing this academically, you need to talk to the professor. For starters, you can only submit it to one academic journal at a time. Also, you probably want his guidance to form it from a seminar paper to a publishable one - the content may be there, but there are forms that are pretty standard, and they can differ from journal to journal. Also, he can let you know which references you need to add to your lit review based on those journals, ie, if you submit to Journal Awesome, you want to make sure the editor of Journal Awesome is one of your cited references. </p>
<p>Is any of your data primary sources? ie, did you talk to anybody, read online blogs, etc, to come up with your data? If so, you cannot publish this paper without your professor filing an IRB with your instiutional review board, and then redo your data once you have the irb.</p>
<p>All of that sounds negative…here is the positive. When a prof says that, they are inviting you to work with them to revise this paper for submission. So go for it - this is the kind of thing you want if you want to go to grad school. Also, if they work with you, they may end up signing on as your second author, which is great news if you want to go to grad school or publish, because a submission from Mr. Nobody on Topic X gets a much different looksee than a submission from Mr. Nobody and Dr. Famous on Topic X. And meeting with him insures you end up with the best work possible, and it looks so good on your grad school applications if you published with one of your recommenders.</p>
<p>I also was going to suggest considering a collaborative authorship with the prof. But I don’t have the specific knowledge of the process that the othersideII has, so glad to hear him chime in.</p>
<p>I would, ergo, not only speak to the prof about best journal for submittal but ask if he thinks you should submit as single author or whether he would collaborate with you. This might mean you are listed as second author, not first. Not a bad thing for an undergrad’s first publication.</p>
<p>If your professor is as important as you say he is, than he almost certainly knows the editors of all the top journals in your field, and will be able to tell you what to do. He may also be able to pull strings and help you out.</p>