From Here to There
An Overview of the Scholarly Publishing Process
So what’s the overall process for getting your paper published in a scholarly journal? Let’s look at who does what from a couple of different perspectives. Here is the (typical) linear flow of the process:
- Author submits manuscript to academic journal editor
- Editor determines whether manuscript has sufficient merit to be reviewed by editorial board or selected external reviewers
- Manuscript sent back to the author with a rejection letter or on to reviewers
- Reviewers return the manuscript to the editor with comments and recommendations (depending on peer review model)
- Editor sends manuscript back to the author with either a rejection letter or a request for revisions
- Author revises manuscript and resubmits to editor
- Editor (sometimes) sends revised manuscript back to external reviewers
- Editor accepts or rejects manuscript
- Author provides editing or proofing of final copy before publication
- Paper is eventually published in journal
This model has held sway since the beginning of scholarly publishing. It relies on many individuals playing distinct roles within the overall process of publishing scholarly journals. Over the course of your career, you will likely play all of these roles, so let’s take a closer look at them now.

