Scholarly Publishing and Research Impact: Submission Guidelines

While publication information basics (where journals are published, how often, for how long, in what language, etc) are reasonable easy to find, acceptance rates can be quite hard to locate. There is no single source that publishes acceptance rates for all journals in all disciplines. We suggest the following:

• Check out the journal's website. In addition to manuscript submission guidelines, many publishers post acceptance rates in the authors' information section.
• Search the name of the journal and "acceptance rates" in Google or another web search engine.
• Search the discipline (i.e., biology) and "acceptance rates" in Google or another web search engine. (Note: your results will be mixed with student acceptance rates for schools and colleges.)

See below for information regarding publishing by core discipline:

SCImago Journal & Country Rank:

• Basic publication information
• Link to journal homepage
• Link to publication guidelines
• Link to contact information

Cabell's Directory for Education is published in 3 disciplines:

1. Curriculum and Methods
2. Psychology and Administration
3. Educational Technology and Library Science

Cabell's seeks to provide the following information:

• Basic publication and contact information
• Manuscript guidelines
• Manuscript style requirements
• Review information - including type of review, number of external reviewers, number of in house reviews
• Acceptance Rate
• Time to review
• Fees to publish

Information in Cabell's is provided by the journal publisher, and acceptance rate formulas differ from publisher to publisher. 

The MLA Directory is no longer published in print but is available in electronic format as part of subscription to the MLA International Bibliography. In our library, the MLA International Bibliography is available on the Gale database platform.

SCImago Journal & Country Rank:

• Basic publication information
• Link to journal homepage
• Link to publication guidelines
• Link to contact information

Unfortunately, there is no published directory providing acceptance rates for nursing journals. We have found some resources you may find helpful - 

Northam, S., Trubenbach, M., & Bentov, L. (2000, September). Nursing journal survey: information to help you publish.  Nurse Educator, 25 (5), 227-236. 
Retrieved January 14, 2008, from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database. Available in print copy in the VC/UHV Library, Periodicals Section.

Review of reasons cited by editors for rejecting manuscripts. Acceptance rates for 83 nursing journals. Survey data from 1998.

SCImago Journal & Country Rank:

• Basic publication information
• Link to journal homepage
• Link to publication guidelines
• Link to contact information

The APA publishes submission and acceptance rates for APA published journals in an annual report titled Summary Report of Journal Operations.

The APA website also hosts APA Publishing Resources, which provides links to policies, manuscript preparation information, and calls for papers for APA published journals. 

Cabell's seeks to provide the following information:

• Basic publication and contact information
• Manuscript guidelines
• Manuscript style requirements
• Review information - including type of review, number of external reviewers, number of in house reviews
• Acceptance Rate
• Time to review
• Fees to publish

Each discipline has a subject index to help you identify those journals most likely to accept manuscripts in your research area. 

SCImago Journal & Country Rank:

• Basic publication information
• Link to journal homepage
• Link to publication guidelines
• Link to contact information