Annette Why not have her send it to the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research? Regardless of where she sends it it'll be "under review" when she is applying for graduate school so I'd focus on finding a journal that is a good fit rather than one that has quick turn-around times. Marie
**************************************************** Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Department Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology Kaufman 168, Dickinson College Carlisle, PA 17013 Office: (717) 245-1562, Fax: (717) 245-1971 http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/psych/helwegm/ **************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: tay...@sandiego.edu [mailto:tay...@sandiego.edu] Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:19 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] How can you tell a journal is "vanity"? Hi Tipsters: If you have already seen this on psychteach just delete. I am looking for a home for a manuscript for an honors student's thesis that is quite good. She is applying to grad programs and so we want to stay away from "vanity" journals because no matter how wonderful and rigid the review process, as for Psych Record, apparently it is a kiss of death. Apparently it is better not to publish at all than to publish in a vanity journal. I don't get it, but I guess it's not mine to get or not get... That said, we've been looking for an appropriate home. The journal of ed psych would be good, but her paper, although important, is small. The papers in that journal, as well as most APA journals, are all large, multi study papers for the most part. OK, so a journal like ToP that has short reports is good, but she doesn't want the ToP turn around time. Something "under review" will probably be better than nothing on her vita at this point. But the ToP "under review" can take a very long time. So then we looked at Contemporary Educational Psychology, as a good fit for a short report, but we can't find anything on their website that indicates whether or not you have to pay to publish. But other journals, that I KNOW you have to pay to publish in, also don't say so right on the advice to authors' information page; usually it's just about using APA style, how to do figures, tables, etc., etc., all the mechanics. So, how is a person to know if they are submitting to a "vanity" journal? HELP! Is there a listing anywhere of "good" versus "bad" journals to publish in? This whole aspect of the enterprise seems to fly in the face of public dissemination of psychological science if we have to become obsessed with good peer review, but oh wait! if you are paying for publication there MUST be something wrong with your paper...... Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 tay...@sandiego.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
