Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: April 15, 2022

Is your writing making a difference? As an academic author, you likely want to add new ideas, new discoveries, and new knowledge into your discipline that can inch your field forward. But until it’s finished and published, it can’t make a difference. As Jon Acuff shares, “90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.”

In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we find ideas for continuing to write as you enter exam season, and for writing rhythmically while defining your own author voice. We explore why articles get rejected and how to come up with the perfect book title. We learn how to combat our inner critic and to leave a writer’s group gracefully. Finally, we see some advancements in the publishing industry.

Whatever is holding you back from sharing your writing with the world, face it today and in the week ahead. Make a plan to contribute those ideas to your field. Published is better than perfect. Happy writing!

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How to write a cover letter for your academic journal article

In this age of electronic submissions and instant gratification, the simple courtesies of yesterday are sometimes lost in the speed of today’s processes. Regardless, most people agree that good manners never go out of style.

As a result, introducing your article with a well-written cover letter to the editor can be the catalyst to a favorable review and acceptance of your submission for publication. These tips can help you write a cover letter that sells your research to the journal editor.

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How to select effective journal article keywords

Unless potential readers are searching for your article by title or are reading the journal your work is published in, chances are they are going to find your article through a research search engine. If effective keywords are not associated with your article, the search engine uses content in your title, abstract, and article to determine if your article is relative to the user’s search efforts. As a result, your target reader may never see your work.

To improve your chances of getting in front of the right audience, keywords let you identify places where your work is a relevant choice for the reader. Below are five ways to select effective keywords for your journal article.

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Common errors leading to journal article rejection

According to the American Psychological Association’s Summary Report of Journal Operations, 2016, the twenty-nine journals included in the report received a combined total of 12,166 submitted manuscripts with an overall rejection rate of 71%. This means that on average less than 3 of every 10 submitted manuscripts is accepted for publication.

To better understand the common reasons journal articles are rejected, we sought the insight of several TAA members experienced in the academic journal article publishing process.

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Pay to play: Are submission fees common for publication in journals?

There seem to be many recent email messages, advertisements, and calls for journal submissions that have touted competitive or lower than average submission fees. From a traditional perspective of submitting work to academic journals, you may 1) never paid for submission of articles, and 2) been wary of those journals who required payment for submission, thinking them to be less credible “pay to play” sources of publication.

With evidence of a more common practice of submission fee requirements, we solicited the opinions of TAA members Jörg Waltje, executive director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at Texas Woman’s University, and Patricia Goodson, presidential professor for Teaching Excellence and director of POWER Services for Texas A&M University, who provided different perspectives.

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Stretch, reach and fall back: Targeting your submission to the journal

Deciding where to submit your journal article can be a daunting task. Not all journals are created equal. Journals differ in content and, of course, in the more elusive, status within the discipline. What I will write about here is how to select and refine your submission based on the journal’s status within your discipline. Two strategies can smooth out the submission process. The first strategy illustrates one way to decide on the journal in which you want to publish. The second strategy is how to analyze the articles within that selected journal to focus your writing to that audience.

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