How Do You Get Published in Journals?

[HistPolity]

I noticed the other thread in this section about AHF Members who've been published by academic journals.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=224539

I was wondering how does one accomplish this? I have a masters degree in history and I have had articles published for a couple of prominent current affairs sites. Do I need to have a PhD to be considered for the likes of the Journal of Military History or would a well written piece suffice?

[Mori]

I've just gone through the process for War in History. It's pretty simple: register on the submission web site, fill the forms, load your article. And that's it.

There wasn't any condition related to academic diploma.

I received a reply within 6 weeks. Both peer reviews were positive so the article was accepted immediately.

[Tom from Cornwall]

Mori,

How many words did your submission contain? Is there a particular range that they look for?

Regards

Tom

[Mori]

Usually the journals give their preferred format. AFAIR, War in History likes 50 000 (spaces included) signs articles.

[Tom from Cornwall]

Thanks, that's useful to know.

Regards

Tom

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi HistPolity,

I would suggest that your choice of subject is important. Find a significant historical niche that is currently ill- or un-served and make it your own through original research.

I have an acquaintance who has no university degree but gets published by researching original subjects for which there is little precedent, or competition. He has even been asked to review later books by real academics in his subject areas because nobody else is qualified to do so! He once had Omer Bartov and Norman Stone attend a lecture he gave at a conference.

Cheers,

Sid.

[steve248]

I do not have a single academic qualification and left school at 16.
I have had numerous articles published in academic journals after peer-review; took some time to realize the reviews were only as good as the "peer".
So do not be discouraged by apparently "bad" reviews as the peer may have less knowledge than you.

A couple of points to remember: the journal itself probably has notes about the style it wants, the word count and length.

My last aticle being published presumably this year in the US, the publisher puts all numbers in words which seems childish. They all have their quirks.