32 Scholarly Publishing
Libby Wheeles; Helena Marvin; and Tim Nelson
Introduction
This chapter offers a brief overview of scholarly publishing, the process by which scholarly articles and scholarly books are created.
As a reminder:
A scholarly source is written by an academic expert to communicate original research or other academic discourse with other scholars.
We cover the basics of scholarly publishing for two reasons:
- To review what scholarly sources are and where to find them.
- To introduce the main players in the publishing process, including the researchers, reviewers, publishers, and librarians.
The Basics of Scholarly Publishing
For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll focus on how scholarly journal articles get from an idea in a researchers’ head to the written article you can read through the library website or on the web. As a reminder, scholarly (or academic) journal articles are written by scholars to share their research with other experts.
Steps to Publication
- Research and writing. First, the authors conduct their original research and write an article to share their results. This article usually combines previous research in the field (to provide background and support their methodology) and their own original work.
- Submission to a journal. The author(s) find a journal that publishes articles similar to the theirs. This similarity is a good indication that the journal would be interested in their article and that they would reach their target audience (e.g., scholars who specialize in their field) by publishing in that journal.
- Editor review. An editor who works for the journal decides whether the article is well-written and appropriate for that journal’s scope. If it does, they send the article to peer reviewers who are experts on topics relevant to the article.
- Peer review. Peer reviewers do not typically work for or get paid by the journal. Instead, peer review work is considered part of regular faculty responsibilities. Often, reviewers assess the strength of the argument, the clarity of the writing, and the overall contribution to the subject area. The final decision on whether to publish, however, rests with the publisher. Important: Not all journal articles are peer reviewed.
- Final revisions and publication. The journal staff (who work for the publisher) facilitate final edits and make the final decision on whether to publish the article. If the article is accepted, it gets published alongside other articles in an issue of that journal. As a reminder, journals (which are a type of periodical) usually get published on a regular schedule, or periodically (similar to newspapers).
- Acquisition. Access to academic research is very expensive. Librarians use their budgets to purchase journal issues or to subscribe to online databases that offer access to those journals. Importantly, libraries cannot purchase access to everything. They make decisions on what to purchase based on their budgets and the research topics that are important to the faculty and students at their university.
A review of most of this process is offered in our peer review tutorial:
Important Roles
Authors/Researchers
The article’s authors are the people who conducted original research and then wrote an article to share their results. The authors are paid to do research with the salaries from their universities and research grant funding that they have to apply for (for example, from federal government programs).
Journal Editor
When authors want to publish their work, they usually submit it to an academic journal. An editor who works for the journal makes the first decision about whether the article passes basic standards and is a good fit for their usual audience. They also facilitate the peer review process. The editor is paid by the publisher of the journal.
Peer Reviewers
Peer reviewers do not work for the journal, and they do not get paid extra from their universities for the labor of peer review. It is considered part of their responsibilities as researchers in their field. They review the article for originality, significance to their field, writing quality, and other criteria. They make recommendations to the journal about whether or not the article should be published.
The Publisher
Publishers act as the gatekeepers and managers of the publishing process. They are responsible for acquiring and selecting manuscripts with potential. Once a manuscript is accepted, the publisher invests financially in its production, which usually includes editing, proofreading, design, formatting, and printing. They handle the critical functions of marketing and distribution to ensure the work reaches its audience. The same publisher may publish many journals.
Once a manuscript is published, the publisher (usually, but not always) owns the rights to that work. That means that the publisher, not the researcher, is the one getting paid when people purchase access.
Librarians
Libraries provide access to journal articles and other works by purchasing them (or licenses for them) from scholarly publishers. And, of course, they work hard to set up their websites and physical collections to make materials easy to find. They also spend a lot of time teaching students how the library works, what kinds of materials we have, and whom they can ask for help.
In addition to librarians who teach and provide research help, other librarians work hard behind the scenes. Staff and faculty who work in acquisitions do things like navigating complicated purchase agreements with publishers and making decisions on research priorities with tight library budgets. You might not ever see them, but they are working hard to help you access the materials you need to learn and conduct student research.
Key Takeaways
- Scholarly publishers are gatekeepers and managers in the scholarly publishing process. They own and publish academic journals, in which researchers publish articles to communicate their work, along with other scholarly manuscripts.
- Authors, editors, reviewers, publishers, and librarians all play important roles in the scholarly publishing process.
- Often, publishers own the rights to and get paid for access to the scholarly work they publish (as opposed to the people who did the research).
