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Scholarly Communications & Digital Publishing Services

SCDPS offers copyright consultations, publishing support, access to the institutional repository, and Open Access (OA) digital publishing tools to the WashU community

Eligibility Criteria for Publishing a Journal

  1. Work is scholarly, educational, or related to the University’s mission

  2. Work does not specifically have to be peer-reviewed but should have a clear process for selecting work

  3. The editor-in-chief or editor is affiliated with WashU

    • WashU affiliation = faculty, researcher, staff member, or student

  4. Student journals: Journal is actively supported by WashU faculty or staff advisor

  5. Open access model. Journals must be fully open access and electronic. No fees or subscriptions

Active Support for Student Journals

If you are a student journal and publishing through WashU, the journal should be actively supported by a WashU faculty or staff advisor. Even if you publish elsewhere, you may want to consider having faculty or departmental support for your publication. 

What does active support mean?  

  • The advisor would serve as a point of contact beyond the student editors who would turn over every few years.  

  • The advisor would also provide domain expertise regarding best practices in the field. This may also include other universities or areas to target when requesting journal submissions.

  • The advisor would be able to advise student editors on the content of the journal and would possibly have editorial experience they could share with students.  

  • The advisor would be familiar with the Libraries’ publishing services and relevant contacts for new students

This information from Campus Life about finding a student group advisor includes some relevant information, including the Advisor Role Checklist (PDF), which can help you think more about what role you want the advisor to have. This is provided as an additional resource; we are not affiliated with Campus Life.