Submitting an article

Each journal has its particular style, and sometimes a specific field and orientation. It’s advisable to check with more experienced colleagues or your thesis supervisor whether the article falls within the field of interest of the journal you are thinking of submitting it to and is likely to be accepted.

Every journal has editorial guidelines that must be adhered to and a specific procedure for submitting an article and this information can generally be found on the journal’s website. To avoid wasting time, it’s better to format the article according to these guidelines right from the start.

The thesis supervisor is responsible for assisting doctoral students with the preparation of their first article(s). Advice from colleagues can also be useful.

In the case of peer-reviewed journals, one or more people are asked to evaluate the submitted contribution.

There are then three possible outcomes :

• the article is refused ;
• the article is accepted, subject to corrections ;
• the article is accepted.

The request for corrections is the most frequent outcome. If the article is refused, it’s very useful to analyse the readers’ report, if possible with the help of your thesis supervisor or colleagues. It may be that the article was not submitted to the right journal. With the necessary corrections, it could probably be submitted elsewhere.