Trying to get my paper published

[kr862313]

Hi everyone,

I recently won an award for my senior honors thesis and my professor wants to look into publishing it. It was a study of mindfulness and health behaviors, and we found that undergraduates who scored higher on mindfulness reported better health, engaged in fewer harmful behaviors, and practiced more beneficial ones.

My question is, can anyone recommend any journals that I might be able to submit it to? My professor asked me to look into ones that have published college populations before but I have no idea which ones would be impossible to get into and which ones are feasible. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! ..

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[JockNerd]

Without knowing any more about your paper, a standard procedure is to look at what journals most of the articles you cite are published in. Those are usually your best bet.

 

[Ollie123]

What JN said.
Alot depends on study quality though. The one that jumped to mind immediately for me is "Health Psychology" since that sounds right up their alley, but its a pretty high tier journal. Without knowing the ins and outs of the project, its really just a shot in the dark for me for whether or not you'd have a chance getting it published there.

On the upside, if you CAN get into a journal of that caliber, you're in pretty awesome shape for grad school

 

[JockNerd]

What JN said.

You say that an awful lot.

 

[Ollie123]

Well then I guess you better stop being right so much

 

[deleted176373]

What JN said.
Alot depends on study quality though. The one that jumped to mind immediately for me is "Health Psychology" since that sounds right up their alley, but its a pretty high tier journal. Without knowing the ins and outs of the project, its really just a shot in the dark for me for whether or not you'd have a chance getting it published there.

On the upside, if you CAN get into a journal of that caliber, you're in pretty awesome shape for grad school

Why not just shoot for "Science"? J/K.

If it's really good don't be afraid to submit to a higher quality journal, you'll need to remember that your article will probably need to be shorter than your thesis... unless it's really concise, so keep that in mind.

As others have said, look to the journals that you have cited from. That's a good indication of where you might want to submit this to.

Mark

 

[PsyDGrrrl]

Hi everyone,

I recently won an award for my senior honors thesis and my professor wants to look into publishing it. It was a study of mindfulness and health behaviors, and we found that undergraduates who scored higher on mindfulness reported better health, engaged in fewer harmful behaviors, and practiced more beneficial ones.

My question is, can anyone recommend any journals that I might be able to submit it to? My professor asked me to look into ones that have published college populations before but I have no idea which ones would be impossible to get into and which ones are feasible. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! ..

Look into the Journal of College Counseling.

 

[kr862313]

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Ollie123]

Why not just shoot for "Science"? J/K.

If it's really good don't be afraid to submit to a higher quality journal, you'll need to remember that your article will probably need to be shorter than your thesis... unless it's really concise, so keep that in mind.

As others have said, look to the journals that you have cited from. That's a good indication of where you might want to submit this to.

Mark

Welp, slightly OT, but one of the faculty members here made a comment that I thought was great advice on the matter.

Academia is all about learning to accept rejection. As long as you don't put your ego on the line with a paper, you're almost always better off overshooting where you think you can get in. You may, and probably will, get rejected, in which case you can just resubmit elsewhere. Shoot for the bottom of the barrel from the get-go though, and you'll be stuck with it printed in a junky journal, and no one will ever see it, let alone utilize it.

I haven't submitted anything as first-author yet so I haven't had to make decisions on where, but excepting situations where I might be in a rush to get something out, I'll probably always go one tier up from where I realistically expect to publish.

 

[JockNerd]

Welp, slightly OT, but one of the faculty members here made a comment that I thought was great advice on the matter.

Academia is all about learning to accept rejection. As long as you don't put your ego on the line with a paper, you're almost always better off overshooting where you think you can get in. You may, and probably will, get rejected, in which case you can just resubmit elsewhere. Shoot for the bottom of the barrel from the get-go though, and you'll be stuck with it printed in a junky journal, and no one will ever see it, let alone utilize it.

I haven't submitted anything as first-author yet so I haven't had to make decisions on where, but excepting situations where I might be in a rush to get something out, I'll probably always go one tier up from where I realistically expect to publish.

I agree, but average review times are a consideration too. If the top tier, unrealistic journal has a 9-month turnaround, at least during grad school I'd go with a quicker review, realistic choice (but still something that people do actually read).

Although in grad school, if you're planning on academia, I'd aim my research projects from the get-go on topics that are likely to get into the top journals anyway.