Publications, Scholarly

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Peer-reviewed scholarly publications are usually journals that are published on a quarterly, bi-annual, or annual basis. Journals are often affiliated with professional organizations and therefore grouped around disciplines or subdisciplines. They may also be focused on a particular research methodology—quantitative, qualitative, rhetorical, or critical, for example. Most of the content in scholarly journals is either empirical or theoretical articles, but some journals also publish reviews of scholarly books.

Empirical articles generally include a rationale for the study, including a review of current literature, a discussion of methods used to gather and analyze data, a discussion of findings, and a summary of conclusions and implications resulting from the study. These elements are organized differently depending on whether the research is qualitative, quantitative, rhetorical, or critical in nature. Articles that are not empirical, such as those proposing, advancing, or challenging theoretical constructs, may also use a different structure. Researchers planning to publish in scholarly journals gather information about the purpose, audience, and guidelines of different publications to ensure that they are submitting their work to an appropriate outlet.

A peer-reviewed publication is administered by an editor who is a scholar in the discipline. With the assistance of an editorial board, also composed of scholars in the field, the editor is responsible for selecting articles to be published in the journal. Researchers submit their work to the journal, usually through an electronic portal. Members of the editorial board with appropriate expertise review articles based on a number of criteria, including relevance to the field, quality of research methods and findings, contribution of conclusions, and appropriateness to the particular journal. Usually, though not always, these reviews are designed to be “blind”—the reviewer does not know the identity of the author, and the author does not know the identity of the reviewer. Following the review process, the author will be notified if her or his work is to be accepted as submitted, whether a revision is recommended with an additional review to follow, or if the work is to be rejected and not considered further for publication in that particular journal.[Page 1371] The purpose of the blind review process is to ensure the highest quality scholarly work is disseminated.

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