Case-Study: Professional Journals

Case-Study: Professional Journals
Case-Study: Professional Journals
Case-Study: Professional Journals
Week 7 discussion DQ 1 Discuss the steps required to submit research to a professional journal, and what you feel will be the biggest obstacle? Why? DQ 2 Read the following article on the impact of maternal prenatal smoking on the development of childhood overweight in school-aged children from the WCU library: http://search.ebscohost.com.westcoastuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=87709502&site=ehost-live. Is the article quantitative, qualitative, or something else? State the study design, research question, and the strength and limitations of the study. Can the study results be generalized? Why or why not?A professional journal is a scholarly journal addressed to a particular professional audience such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, or accountants and published by a professional organization. They may contain research articles, reports, and practical articles applicable to the profession. Professional journals can be a source of research for the profession, such as Reading Teacher. However, professional journals are different from peer-reviewed / scholarly journals. For more information on peer-reviewed / scholarly journals
In states where Extension agents are considered faculty of their land-grant university, they’re often expected to publish articles in professional journals as a way to demonstrate their contribution to the “body of knowledge” of their profession. This article shares 10 tips for “getting published” based on one county Extension agent’s experience during the past decade.
Write About What You Know. I’ve heard some people say they’re hesitant to write articles because they feel they haven’t “done anything” to write about. That isn’t true. You simply need to be interested in and/or knowledgeable about a topic. For example, let’s take something you’ve been teaching. You could wait until you’ve taught a number of classes and write about the evaluation results or you could write about the actual topic itself.
Research Outlets for Publishing. Think about all the professional journals and magazines you’ve seen with articles on topics similar to yours. The preferred medium is the refereed journal, which means that its articles are reviewed by one or more “referees” and only the best are selected (like a juried craft show that separates quality pieces from junk). The Journal of Extension and the Journal of Home Economics are examples of refereed journals. Concentrate your efforts on publications like these because they carry more weight in academia. On the other hand, don’t ignore other publishing opportunities. Any published article is better than none.
Time Your Article. Find out if a particular journal is featuring “theme issues” and, if so, try to tie your ideas into the theme. Doing this can increase your chances of acceptance and, perhaps, move up the date of publication (important for the nontenured). Extension Review is an example of a theme publication. The Journal of Extension doesn’t solicit articles for special themes, though the editor may group articles together in theme sections.
Outline Your Manuscript Before Writing. Write an outline of the introduction, body, and conclusion of the manuscript. Do an “implications” section at the end that ties the information presented to the needs of the readership or actions they can take in the future.
Follow the Rules. In every professional journal, there’s a section that describes how to prepare a manuscript. Failure to “follow the rules” on number of pages, footnoting, abstract length, manuscript review fees, and margin width (to name just a few) can mean rejection or-at the very least-time delays or the need for substantial revision. Also, be aware that it’s unethical to submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal.
Use Primary References and Proper Footnoting. Many articles are rejected because they were improperly referenced. Also, be sure to use only primary sources of information in your list of references.
Learn the Computer. Don’t even think about having your article prepared on a typewriter. You need a word processor to allow you the flexibility to make corrections and changes and to move paragraphs without “feeling sorry” for your secretary.
Revise, Revise, Revise. In 10 years, I’ve submitted 32 articles to journals and had 27 published. Of those, 13 were published only after some sort of revision (sometimes more than once). I tell you this so you know revisions requested by journal editors are normal and to be expected (another reason to save all your manuscripts on the computer). A “request to revise” isn’t a rejection, but rather a set of suggestions to improve an already good article. (If the editors didn’t like some of what you wrote, they’d have rejected it outright.) Simply do what they say…and do it quickly. The sooner you make the required changes, the sooner your article can be reconsidered and, hopefully, published.
Have Your Article Reviewed Before Submission. Even the