Getting SoTL Articles Published- A Few Tips

Kathleen McKinney
Cross Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Sociology

Many faculty are involved in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). As with other forms of scholarship, SoTL requires that work be shared or made public. We urge SoTL researchers to publish their work. If you are interested in investigating possible publication outlets for SoTL work, we have several general higher education and college teaching journals in the CTLT Resource Commons (101 ITDC). In addition, you can find links to other SoTL publication outlets (general and discipline-specific) on this website.

What follows is a list of suggestions for getting your articles published. These tips come from my experience both as an author submitting to refereed journals and as a past editor of Teaching Sociology. Though all the tips may not always fit your circumstance, discipline or publication outlet, I believe many are useful when preparing and submitting an SoTL article for publication.

Think long and hard about the purpose of the article and the intended audience.
Investigate possible publication outlets (journals, scholarly magazines, newsletters, and edited books in progress) before you have “completed” the article. Consider your purpose, the mission of the publication, article restrictions, etc. Look for a good fit between your article and a publication outlet. Many journals have a page that explains their mission or the types of material they publish. In addition, you can look at the notes or articles published in recent issues. Consider whether a discipline-specific or more general pedagogical journal is most appropriate.
Unless you are specifically writing a very brief “teaching tips” note, don’t simply describe something you have tried in the classroom and why you liked it. Most SoTL articles should have the following: a conceptual framework, a literature review, and some form of evidence. Exactly what this looks like, however, will vary by publication outlet, purpose/audience, and discipline.
Look for special issues being planned in which your article might fit.
Contact editors of outlets that look promising and ask if and how your article might fit in an upcoming regular issue, or whether they are planning or might consider a special issue on that topic.
Be sure any literature review is up-to-date and thorough. Be careful to cite any relevant work published in the same journal/magazine to which you plan to submit. Be sure to cite key people in the area.
When writing your article, consider, not only your purpose and content, but the mission, discourse, format, requirements, etc. of the publication outlet to which you plan to submit.
Share your drafts with many people, get lots of reviews/feedback, do many rewrites. Don’t expect journal reviewers to do this work!
Follow all directions and requirements for submission to the outlet you choose (e.g., length, format, number of copies, extra material, hard and/or electronic copies, name/address of contact person, due date if any). Editors find it very frustrating when potential authors do not follow basic directions.
Include a cover letter to the editor. Briefly explain your article and why you are submitting it there. Include your contact information. Request acknowledgement of receipt (send a self-addressed, stamped postcard) of the manuscript.
After a reasonable period of time (find out the average number of weeks a review and editorial decision takes for that journal or outlet, then wait another two or three weeks), contact the editor and tactfully ask about the status of your article.
If accepted at this point, there will still probably be minor changes. Do those promptly and as requested. Return any page proofs within 48 hours and do a good job proof reading. Provide any other requested information (e.g., a brief bio) immediately. Find out if they want an electronic copy of the manuscript and in what format.
If you receive an editorial decision of conditional accept or revise and resubmit, read the reviews and decision letter carefully. Put them aside then read them again later. Ask a colleague to read them. If you have questions or get a sense that an acceptance after revisions is not likely, call the editor and talk about manuscript and the reviews.
If you proceed, make a list of what they are asking you to do. Give serious consideration to all their requests. Make a list of which you are able to do (sometimes reviewers ask authors to correct or change things they cannot correct or change). Make a list of which you agree with and plan to do. Make a list of which you cannot or choose not to do and why.
Do the rewrites, get feedback, and do them again. Update your literature review.
Write a resubmit letter to the editor and reviewer. Be positive. Indicate all the requested changes and corrections you made and how (briefly) you made them. List all the requested changes and corrections you did not make and explain why you did not. Be tactful but confident. In some situations, this letter can be as important as the revised manuscript.
Follow all the directions for resubmitting. Resubmit promptly before you lose interest or the editor changes or the mission of the journal changes!
After a reasonable period of time, contact the editor to check on the status of your manuscript.
If accepted, congratulations (see #12 above).
If you receive another revise and resubmit, you probably need to talk with the editor. Discuss the reviews. Try to get a sense of the likelihood of acceptance if you do another revise and resubmit. Then make a decision of whether to revise or to withdraw your manuscript and submit to another publication outlet.
If rejected, go to your second choice publication outlet. Don’t wait too long. Update the manuscript based on the latest reviews AND adjusting it in line with mission, format, discourse, etc. of this other outlet. Update your literature review. Do not submit to a different journal with out revising your manuscript. Revisions will improve the paper and you could receive one of the same reviewers again. Begin the submission process again.
Be persistent!