The semester has come to an end, now what do you do with that research paper you received excellent feedback on? You may want to consider submitting it to one of many undergraduate journals for publication. If your paper is published, it will look great on graduate school applications and in personal statements.
Several undergraduate journals exist for various disciplines including art and literature, business, philosophy, and political science. One list of undergraduate journals and conferences can be found in the Undergraduate Journals and Conferences Directory.
Choose Your Paper
The first step is choosing what you will submit. You should choose a paper that received a lot of positive feedback from a professor. It should be an example of the best work you are capable of.
Choosing Undergraduate Journals
The second step is choosing which undergraduate journals you will submit your work to. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the journal’s submission guidelines. Don’t send work to journals that aren’t a good fit. Not only will you waste your time by doing this, but you’ll also be wasting editors’ time. Give more weight to a journal that has a peer review process.
Ask Your Professor for Feedback
Next, you will want to contact the professor and ask them if they have the time to provide you with comments on your paper – you are planning to submit it to an undergraduate journal. Even if you received a positive response when you turned your paper in, you may find that this time around your professor makes a lot of comments. Do not become discouraged, this is a good sign.
Revise Your Paper
You will go through these comments and edit your paper as needed. Once you have done this, you may want to have someone proofread your paper for you for grammatical errors and typos. Format your manuscript following the guidelines from the journal exactly. Do not submit by email if they only want paper submissions. If they want a blind submission, remove any identifying information from your manuscript following the editor’s instructions. Once the paper is in the final, submittable form, send it out, and wait.
Good Luck!
