Nuts and Bolts of Scholarly Publishing

This guide is intended for anyone in the university community who is interested in learning more about scholarly publishing. In this guide, you will find information, guidance, and links to resources on:

• Evaluating Academic Journals:
  • Fit: Determining whether a journal is a good fit for your research;
  • Impact: Assessing the impact of a journal, including citation-based impact factors, altmetrics, and the impact of open access journals;
  • Quality: Considering how a journal relates to standards in the scholarly community, including avoiding deceptive practices.
• Journal Contracts and Copyright:
  • Copyright Basics: Understanding copyright and why it is important to scholarly publishing;
  • Key Parts of a Publishing Contract: Recognizing the key parts of a journal publishing agreement;
  • Deciding to Sign: Considering the implications of a journal publishing contract on author rights;
  • Negotiating: Approaching a publisher to propose changes to a journal publishing agreement.

The contents of this guide were created by Rochelle Lundy JD and Julia Hon, University of Washington iSchool class of 2018. Reused with permission.