While researching and writing a good manuscript is key to the success to a great researcher, knowing where to publish, evaluating journals and learning more about the publication process is equally important.
This is the generic publication process for a journal:
Depending on the journal (traditional or open access etc) that you have chosen to submit or publish in, a copyright transfer or article-related charges might be involved. Some journals may also have slight variations in the publication process. As such it is important to select and evaluate a journal that best fits your needs and requirements.
Unsure where to begin? Read more about it under Open Access or Journal Selection.
Book publishing generally follows a slightly different process compared to publishing journal articles. For most academic book publishers, authors will need to first submit a book proposal, detailing the book's content, aims and objectives, marketing pitch, potential readership etc. Publishers will then have some kind of internal review process to evaluate these book proposals.
Once a book proposal is identified as suitable, the authors and publisher will then sign a contract, prepare the manuscript, undergo peer review, production and finally publication.
Similar to the journal selection process, authors should also ensure that they are selecting the right academic book publisher where mutual interests are aligned. To identify potential book publishers, authors may follow the same method as identifying potential journals through a selection criteria or performing a bibliographic search (and filter the results as Books or Book Chapters and identifying potential publishers who have also published books in the same topic).