Publishing Your Research
Kristin Van Diest
Learning Objectives
- Locate the right journal for you and your work
- Understand publishing agreements and publishing platforms
- Learn your rights as an author
- Discover ways to publish your research data
Finding the right journal for your publication
It can be challenging to find the right journal for your publication. One helpful resource is the Think. Check. Submit. method, explained in the video below:
The library has created this resource to help guide you through the process: Where to Publish Your Research. This guide will help you identify potential journals, understand journal metrics, learn about open access publishing, and predatory journals.
If you prefer to learn in Canvas, you can access the course Scholarly Communications: How to Find a Journal to Publish In. This course covers the following topics:
- Identifying potential journals in which to publish
- Exploring tools to identify specific journals of interest
- Step-by-Step instructions on using various directories, manuscript finders, and other tools
- Overview of Open Access Journals
- Information about Predatory Journals
- Additional Resources
Publishing agreements at Texas State University Libraries
The University Libraries have an agreement with publishers to waive APCs in certain journals they publish.
An Article Processing Charge (APC) is the fee to publish in some open access journals. (Not all open access journals or publishers charge a fee to publish an article.) Some departments and the Provost office have assisted faculty with APCs in the past, but that is no longer the case.
Assistance with APC fees:The University Libraries have an agreement with publishers to waive APCs in certain journals they publish. Currently, the three publishers with such agreements are Wiley, Cambridge University Press, and Elsevier.
- Wiley: Our agreement with Wiley covers hybrid journals, and does not cover Gold Open Access Journals. Check Wiley Article Publication Charges for Hybrid Open Access Journals list. Texas State University Article publication charges (APCs) for primary research and review articles published by corresponding authors affiliated with TXST will be covered. To qualify, articles must be published open access in a hybrid journal and must have been accepted on or after 10 January 2022.
- Cambridge University Press: Fill out their Open Access Waivers and Discounts form, entering “United States” and “Texas State University”, to get a list of all the journals covered.
- Elsevier: Our agreement offers a 15% discount on APC for Gold OA titles and 10% for Hybrid. Our Elsevier Subscription Agreement states that according to Schedule 3, Elsevier-Gold and Hybrid Open Access Pilot for TLCUA Member University:
- “The single author who manages the publication process for an article from submission to post acceptance and corresponds with the Publisher on the same that is Corresponding authors affiliated with the [TLCUA Member University] (“Institution”) shall be referred to as “Corresponding Author(s)” and are each granted the right during the term of the Agreement, as part of an Open Access Pilot (“Pilot”), to submit articles to any eligible journal title published by Elsevier, and if accepted for publication, to publish the article open access subject to a 15% (fifteen) discount on the article published charge (“APC”) for Gold core Elsevier journals and a 10% (ten) discount on the APC for Hybrid core Elsevier journals, based on the then current list price set forth at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals/journal-pricing/apc-pricelist. Eligible titles include Elsevier-owned hybrid and fully gold journals, with the exception of Cell Press and The Lancet, and certain society titles. In certain limited cases the eligible titles may be subject to change, for example where Elsevier launches new fully gold open access journals that will be eligible for the Pilot or where titles transfer to another publisher and will no longer be eligible.”
Author Rights
An individual has rights to the intellectual or creative works they produce. As an author, you own the rights to your work from the moment that work takes on some fixed form, until or unless the rights are transferred to another entity. Traditional publishing contracts often assign copyright to the publisher, thus limiting how and where the work can be used and distributed in the future. If this happens, authors may be restricted from incorporating this work into their teaching and research, posting it to a website, or in an Instituational repository or digital collection.
Further information can be found on our Author’s Rights & Publishing Agreements guide. This guide will also encourage you to publish and preserve your work in the Digital Collections Repository, which is a service that provides free and open access to the scholarship and creative works produced and owned by the members of the community. Before publishing your work with another source, consider adding it to the repository for preservation and long-term visibility.
Texas State University Library has knowledgeable copyright experts for you to consult with. Our Copyright & Open Access Initiatives Librarian can help you better understand how copyright can effect your publications. The Copyright Guide will give you more robust information from the basics to permissions to the public domain.
More information about Creative Commons licenses and open licensing can be found in the part of this book on publishing, under Open Licensing and Creative Commons Licenses for Publishing.
Publishing your Data
There are many resources available to publish your data with Texas State University. The first step when considering this is to complete the TXST Dataverse Repository Submission Checklist and review this Quick Start Guide. The Research Data Management: Data Preservation and Sharing Guide can also provide you with more information and resources about publishing your data.
Digging Deeper
- Visit the Digital Publishing homepage
- Review our Where to Publish Your Research? Guide
- Complete the Scholarly Communications: How to Find a Journal to Publish In course in Canvas
- Connect with the Digital Publishing Librarian, Kristin Van Diest at kvandiest@txstate.edu
- Connect with the Data Curation Specialist, Xuan Zhou, PhD at x_zhou@txstate.edu
Journals that publish with no fees for readers.
Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices. - Nature