How to Get Published in a Peer Reviewed Journal

I’m attending the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning 2017 in Toronto, Canada and blogging the sessions I’m attending.

Presenters:

Diane Conrad, co-editor of IRRODL
Lesley Diack,Aberdeen, Scotland, Research in Learning Technology, Journal of the Association of Learning Technologists; she’s one of five editors, it used to be ALT-J
Tannis Morgan, Justice Institute of British Columbia, serves on multiple editorial boards
Lucy Gray, editor for Open Learning
Jill Buban, Online Learning Consortium, Online Learning Journal, formerly Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks

Stories of Rejection

The politics of rejections. Knowing the audience.
Sometimes seen articles they’ve rejected appear in other journals.
What about when there are two good reviews and one bad review. Sometimes the reviewer is wanting a different article – their perspective.
- Tip: responses from the author regarding the reviewers that are very well thought out – these can make a major difference. There might be something in the reviews that’s out to lunch. As an author you need to respond and give a rationale for why you use this or not.

The experience of being an author, a student
The desire to support authors who are new to writing in the area
Part of the role of a reviewer is to give good feedback to help them; same situation as supporting students
Working on a new journal with others, shaping a journal
Doing a lot of peer reviews
Started a class newspaper in grade four
I enjoy helping people learn to write; and I enjoy reading what other people have written, reviewing puts you on the front line of the research
My supervisor told me to review so that my writing would improve
It’s good for me as a professor to be an editor
Writing in journalism and news

Provocative question from the moderator to a panel of women.

When reviewers don’t agree
Sometimes the judgment call is suitability to the journal – that’s easy; but then other decisions are more difficult
Further discussion of reviewers… IRRDOL rates reviewers on the quality of the review
Some of the journals represented are trying hard to publish from countries who have had less of a voice
One option is to have three reviewers required for each article
Challenges with articles written by non-native speakers, providing editing or recommending the author get additional editing assistance

Look at the topics in the journal, seeing how your article fits in the journal
Authors do throw articles blindly out; they haven’t researched the journal
Journals have information that outlines the scope, interests
Look at the masthead and see who is on the editorial board – that shapes the concern of the journal
Authors can write a letter to ask whether the article fits in the journal
It saves a huge amount of time to ask about the article ahead of time; otherwise you’re wasting time in the review process
Review the archives of the journal to get a flavor of the topics
Rolling publications means that your journal can get published faster; as they are reviewed they can be posted
Open journals are a great way to get your work out there
Look at how many issues a year they publish
From the audience: Contact North has a searchable directory of journals regarding online learning
Don’t submit to more than one journal at a time!!

First the article goes through a plagiarism service. Shouldn’t be 50-60% or more of a previous article
Checking to see if it’s a fit
Good methodology / sound research
Missing the description of the population
There is nothing new
Does it matter?
Abstracts are often very bad – it should say certain things – the journal websites tell about it
Be clear about what you’re writing – what is the article about, what type of article are you writing
Follow the journal guidance on the website
Different journals care about different things – ignoring the past history of online learning
Results and conclusions often don’t match the data

Great advice and discussion on the publication process and issues for online learning.