Undergraduate's Intro to Creating & Communicating Research

To select a journal:

Read their mission and scope carefully. This will tell you what they are looking for.

• Certain areas of focus?
• Theoretical or applied research?
• Empirical studies only, or also literature reviews, case studies, and other kinds of communications?

Pay attention to word or page limits, if given. An excellent paper may be quickly rejected if it is too long. If you aren't sure whether your paper's length will be a problem, email the journal editor and ask.

Follow instructions. Format the document the way the journal instructs. Editors may decline to even send a paper for peer review if they feel like their submission instructions have not been followed.

Read some recent articles they published to determine whether your work lines up with what they are seeking.

Don't let fear stop you from submitting. The worst that could happen is that they say "no," and the next journal might say "yes."

Journals Seeking Undergraduate Authors