Undergraduate Research

Getting Published

Finding the Best Journal for Your Work

  • Explore publications listed on the MacEwan Open Journals website.
  • Ask instructors and librarians for recommendations.
  • Read through information on journal websites and consider the following:
    • Is the journal currently accepting new submissions?
    • How often does it publish?
    • Does it limit who can submit work (e.g., only students who attend a specific university?)
    • Is the journal peer-reviewed to help ensure quality and academic rigor?
    • Is it open access or do readers need a subscription to view its content? This can impact how many people have access to your work, and who you are allowed to share it with once it is published.

If you still have questions or concerns, be sure to contact the journal's manager. Once you publish your work with a journal you will not be able to publish that same work elsewhere in the future - so choose wisely!

After You Have Submitted Your Work

If you have submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, your work will be sent to other experts in your field for review before a decision is made whether or not to publish it. This process can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. After your work has been reviewed, you will receive one of the following responses along with reviewer feedback:

  • Accepted: Congratulations, you're going to be published!
  • Revisions required: You will need to review feedback and make corrections to your work before re-submitting for publication. This is very common and provides an opportunity to make your work even better before others see it.
  • Rejected: It happens to the best of us! Review feedback and decide whether to rewrite your work and re-submit to the same journal, or submit to a different journal that is a better fit.

After You Have Published

Getting published as an undergraduate student is a big deal! Show off your accomplishment by including a citation to your work on your resume or CV, mentioning it on social media (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn), and highlighting it in graduate school applications.

Your work may also qualify for inclusion in MacEwan's institutional repository, Research Online at MacEwan (RO@M). Send a citation along to roam@macewan.ca for consideration.

For additional information on getting published, please visit MacEwan Library's Publishing Support page for faculty.