Publish your article
If you would like to know more about the article publishing process at De Gruyter, you will find all the information you need here. This page explains how to get your article published, the different levels of editing, workflows and systems that allow us to provide a service that meets the different needs of researchers across different subject areas.
OVERVIEW OF PUBLISHING PROCESS
Here is an overview of the publishing process following the submission of your manuscript:
Editor’s assessment: In-house editors review the scope, content and language of the manuscript to decide whether or not it merits peer review. Articles often get rejected at this stage.
- Peer review: The manuscript undergoes peer review to obtain feedback from other subject matter experts on the quality of the submission. There are different types of peer review. Before you submit your manuscript, it is important to understand the difference between various review processes:
Double blind: Reviewers do not know the name of the author, and the author does not know the name of the reviewers.
Single blind: Reviewers know the author's name, but the author does not know the name of the reviewers.
Open peer review: The identity of both parties is disclosed
- Editor’s decision: Following peer review, editors choose to recommend the article for publication, send it back to the author for revisions or reject it. Editors reserve the right to reject a submission even after multiple rounds of revisions.
Revisions: Authors are required to implement revisions based on the feedback from editors and peers and have to respond to any comments from reviewers.
Final decision: When an article is ready for publication, the editor makes a final acceptance decision. Once a manuscript is accepted, it is moved to production where it may go through a process of language and technical editing. Additional revisions may be required before the manuscript is moved into production.
Even when there are no complications, these stages take time. Authors can avoid unnecessary delays by making sure there are no missing files, that all raw data files are included in the submission and that all files are editable.
EDITORIAL SUPPORT
To ensure a smooth process, we offer authors the following support:
Journal Coordinators oversee the entire technical production process and serve as contact person for all pre- and post-production-related questions
Our Rights Department will assist with all questions regarding permission requests and licencing
The Customer Service Department provides assistance with online access and platform navigation
Our Content Management System Technical Support Team provides assistance with using the submission management system
Clear lines of communication between you and us mean less guesswork for you, helpful answers to your questions and faster solutions to any problems that may arise.
If you have any more questions regarding editorial support, you can contact our journal management team here.
Manuscript
CHOOSING A JOURNAL
Choosing a suitable journal from all the available publishing services is the first step to publish your articles online. At De Gruyter, we have an extensive range of journals depending on the subject area you are interested in.
You can find a journal here best suited to your article.
TIPS FOR CHOOSING A JOURNAL
When choosing a journal you may want to consider:
The specific subject area in which you want to publish
The aims and scope of the journal you would like to publish in
The type of manuscript you have written
The significance of your work
The reputation of a journal
The reputation of the editors
The editorial/review and production speed of the journal
The community that the journal serves
You can browse our journals here.
JOURNAL SUBMISSIONS
Once you have identified a journal, visit the journal’s website and review all the information on submissions. Each journal’s supplementary pages contain its current journal impact factor and other relevant information about the journal. At De Gruyter, we offer guidance for creating and formatting your manuscript.
Many journals have online submission management systems designed to speed up the publication process. Two of these systems are ScholarOne Manuscripts and Editorial Manager. If the journal does not have an online submission management system, you will need to contact the journal via its website.
CHARGES
There are no charges involved in publishing with a De Gruyter subscription-based journal.
If you want to publish an open access article, you will be asked to pay article processing charges to retain copyright of your article and the freedom to share it as you see fit.
OPEN ACCESS
There are a number of open access publication models.
THE DIFFERENT OPEN ACCESS MODELS
At De Gruyter, we use the following two models:
A hybrid open-access model: A journal that uses this model only provides open access to some articles. The author is expected to pay a publication fee known as an article processing charge (APC) in addition to paying subscriptions for access to additional content.
A pure open access model: This model provides open access to all the journal’s articles. The author is expected to pay an APC to the publisher.
WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER OPEN ACCESS
There are many benefits to publishing under open access, some of which include:
Open access research can be read by anyone, anywhere immediately upon publication
Authors retain copyright
Increased downloads and references
Higher visibility in search engines
Enhanced cross-disciplinary exposure
SPECIFICATIONS
De Gruyter has specific guidelines for preparing and formatting your manuscripts.
CREATING AND FORMATTING THE MANUSCRIPT
Every journal has detailed guidelines for composing and formatting manuscripts which have to be taken into consideration. These instructions for authors can be found on the relevant journal’s “supplementary material” pages.
ILLUSTRATIONS
There are no costs involved when you submit an illustration, whether in black and white or colour, to a De Gruyter Journal. However, costs may apply to open access journals.
When adding illustrations or graphics to an article, you should only add necessary images. This will avoid exceeding the limits that a specific journal may impose. A unique caption must accompany each graphic.
If you use an online submission management system such as ScholarOne Manuscripts or Editorial Manager, you will be given clear instructions on how to upload your graphics.
If you want to obtain rights to use or edit graphics, you can find more information on how to do this on our Rights and Permissions page.
ETHICS IN PUBLISHING
When publishing a manuscript, you are expected to follow the publishing ethics of the relevant journal. Prior to submission, you and your co-authors will be required to consent to these guidelines which can usually be found in the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement of a journal’s supplementary pages.
De Gruyter also provides a Code of Conduct for Publication Procedures and Ethics. This document defines the responsibilities of De Gruyter and the editors we work with to ensure that our published research is legitimate and of the requisite quality. Our principles are based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
CREATING AN ORCID ID
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a non-profit, publisher-independent system used to uniquely identify academics and their publications. ORCID provides numerous benefits to authors, including more time for research as a result of reducing the time spent on administration, an easy way to track your work even if you were to change your name, and an ID that links all your research work. To find out more about this service, visit the ORCID site here.
Review
Before publication, your article is carefully reviewed.
EVALUATION AND PEER REVIEW
The evaluation and peer review process differ depending on the journal. Here are three of the most common peer review methods used:
Double blind: Under this review method, reviewers don't know the name of the author and the author doesn't know the name of the reviewers.
Single blind: Under this review method, the reviewers know the author's name but the author doesn't know the name of the reviewers.
Open peer review: Under this review method, every party is disclosed.
Typically, every manuscript is reviewed by at least two independent experts, after which the manuscript is either accepted, rejected or returned to the author for revision.
While many journals allow authors to suggest reviewers, our editors exercise their discretion when deciding whether or not to accept these suggestions.
The length of time required by the review process varies depending on the journal. Once an article has been accepted for publication, it takes between three and four weeks to be published online. This timeline only applies to ahead-of-print publications
CRITERIA
Many factors determine the success of a submission. Academic quality, the significance of the research, the timeliness of the topic, and the plausibility of its results all play a crucial role – as does compliance with formal criteria, sound structuring and comprehensible language free from errors.
For each journal's particular specifications, refer to the instructions for authors section of the journal’s website.
PROOFREADING
Prior to the publication of your manuscript, you will receive a copy of the article to proofread. Only minor corrections will be accepted at this stage. Once you have returned the proofread article, we will ask you to sign our Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Production
De Gruyter’s experienced production team offers high quality service in all areas of technical production, including:
A journal style sheet with formatting guidelines for authors
Pre-production quality checks for tables and figures
Technical copyediting of accepted manuscripts prior to typesetting
Typesetting and page proof production
A journal workflow system for managing author submissions, external peer review and technical production (with personal online training for the journal editorial staff)
PDF galley proofs (distribution and correction)
DOI assignment for online articles
Ahead-of-print online publishing of articles (ca. 4-6 weeks prior to print)
Online publication in both PDF and full-XML formats
High-quality digital printing of the hardcopy edition
Complimentary colour reproduction of images featured in published articles
TECHNICAL EDITING
We provide standard technical editing of technical issues prior to high-quality typesetting, which is performed according to De Gruyter standards and house style. This applies to every manuscript and includes the following:
Check the manuscript for completeness to ensure that all parts have been provided
Review the consistency of figures and abbreviations in captions
Ensure the use of unicode for any special characters
Review the consistency of headlines and footnotes
Monitor the length of running heads
Examine the quality of figures and legibility of tables
Ensure consistency in reference style
TYPESETTING AND PROOFING
Typesetting of articles is overseen by a journal coordinator and performed by an external service provider. Author proofs and any related queries to the author are distributed via the Production Tracking System (MPStrak).
TYPOGRAPHY
Your article’s content will be presented in De Gruyter house style. We have carefully developed our own house style and proprietary font for content layout, characterised by a clean page design and a font that is easy to read, both in print and on screen.
GRAPHICS
The De Gruyter journal coordinator performs a pre-production quality check of all tables and figures in the accepted manuscript and advises on any improvements necessary for optimal reproduction. We offer complimentary colour reproduction of images featured in published articles at no extra cost to the author. Audio and video files may also be submitted as supplementary material for the online version.
DESIGN AND BRANDING
A cover image will be specially created for your article using De Gruyter’s modern corporate design. We recognise that publications should comply with a high standard of design and that careful attention should be paid to this. With online publishing, journal and social identity can and should play a bigger role than ever. The design of the article should therefore be created with the aim of establishing/strengthening the journal’s branding, while also maintaining brand recognition for already-existing articles.
Publication
Once your article has been published, there are a number of things you should keep in mind.
AHEAD-OF-PRINT AND JUST-ACCEPTED ARTICLES
Most academic journals publish in volumes and issues, regardless of whether a publication is online or in print.
When research is deemed important enough to warrant immediate publication, such as contributions in a STEM field, many journals prefer to first publish online or “ahead of print”. These articles are assigned an issue once they are published.
“Just accepted” refers to manuscripts that some journals make available online immediately after they have been accepted and prior to copy-editing, typesetting and final proofreading.
Both ahead-of-print and just-accepted publications are given a DOI (digital object identifier), making it possible to cite them as soon as they appear.
UNLIMITED ACCESS
As the corresponding author, you receive unlimited free access to the online version of your article. Once published online, you will be emailed a message with detailed instructions on downloading and viewing your article as a PDF. De Gruyter’s Repository Policy allows you to send up to 50 copies of your article to colleagues.
PUBLISHING ON WEBSITES AND REPOSITORIES
Twelve months after the initial publication of an article, De Gruyter allows authors to archive the final published version on a personal website and/or institutional repository on servers run for non-commercial purposes.
More information about adding content to repositories can be found in our publishing guidelines.
MARKETING
We use a variety of communication channels to promote and disseminate our authors' publications among new readers.
ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING SERVICES
Abstracting and indexing services such as Web of Science and SCOPUS use abstracts and metadata to facilitate access to the content of academic journal articles and eBooks. This substantially increases the readership of academic literature.
BLOGS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
We use subject-specific accounts on social media to share a variety of content with more than 32,000 followers on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
Journal articles that may be of interest to a broader public are announced on Twitter and Facebook in addition to being presented on our subject-specific blog De Gruyter Conversations.
PROMOTING ARTICLES
To ensure your article reaches the greatest number of readers, the De Gruyter website has undergone extensive search engine optimisation so that your article will be easy to discover. At De Gruyter, we maintain close contact with various abstracting and indexing services and promote your articles via social media and our blog De Gruyter Conversations. In addition, individual journal contributions are highlighted as “editors’ choice” articles that allow free access for one calendar year.
SALES
To maximise your article's impact, an efficient international approach to sales is crucial.
INTERNATIONAL SALES
Our sales team is spread out among regional offices across the globe and provides professional expertise and first-class customer contacts. This worldwide sales network enables us to offer academic content that is specifically suited to the local needs of international audiences.
PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS
De Gruyter maintains and continues to work on growing strategic distribution partnerships with internationally renowned publishers. Public partnerships with publishers such as Harvard University Press, Princeton University Press and Penn Press expand our portfolio and increase the appeal of our top-class content.
AFTER PUBLICATION
At De Gruyter we also provide post-publication assistance.
AUTHOR NAME CHANGE POLICY
We acknowledge that people change their names for any of several reasons, including changes in gender identity, religion or marital status. We believe that people should be able to do so easily and discreetly without compromising their academic careers.
What you need to do:
If you have published with De Gruyter and would like to change the name on existing publications, here is what you need to do:
Please submit a name change request to [email protected] in which you provide us with:
Your previous name
Your current name
Your previous email address (if it has changed)
The DOI(s) of the publication(s) to be updated
You do not need to provide official proof of your name change
You may inform any co-authors or (co-)editors if you wish to do so
Creating an ORCID iD is a good way to make sure that you are identified as the author of all your work regardless of the name under which you published
To protect your privacy, De Gruyter will not notify anyone else of your name change
What we will (and will not) do:
We will replace the original version of your publication with the updated version. This may take a few weeks to implement
The DOI of your publication will stay the same
The updated publication will not include any notice of change, anonymised or otherwise
We will notify our indexing partners of the change to ensure discoverability under your new name
We will not be able to guarantee if and when the indexing information will be updated
For technical and legal purposes, we will store a version of your work bearing your previous name in our data warehouse which will only be accessible by authorised De Gruyter staff
We will not make public any stored version(s) of your work bearing your previous name(s).
Want to help us improve our policy or have any questions? Please send your feedback and queries to [email protected].
CONTACT OUR TEAM FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE PUBLISHING PROCESS
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].