Publishing your dissertation--or part of it--is a wonderful way to expand the reach of your scholarship. However, you may have questions about this process, particularly when your dissertation is publicly available in the Libraries' Scholarly Commons. This page goes over your various options for how to do this ethically.
- Consider publishing in an Open Access journal. Open Access journals typically allow authors to maintain their copyright and determine their own usage license for the work. This is typically the most flexible option in terms of reusing graduate work that is publicly available in a repository like Scholarly Commons as they operate with similar Creative Commons licenses.
- Explore fully open journals on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- Some OA journals do require authors to pay an Article Processing Charge (or APC). JMU Libraries has agreements with several publishers for our affiliates to publish in their journals either with no fee or with a reduced fee. Explore this page to see those agreements and identify journals from those publishers if you with to pursue this option.
- If publishing OA is not an option, identify journals that allow reuse of graduate work in their publications. This will be dependent on individual journals and/or their publishers. Often when one publishes in a subscription-based journal, the journal may wish to obtain copyright of the work, which could impact one's ability to reuse their own work that is available in a repository. MIT Libraries maintains a list of publisher policies on reusing theses/dissertations in new article publications. Explore this list to determine policies for journals you are interested in.
- Common publishers in counseling and psychology fields on this list include:
- Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Emerald Publishing, Nature, Oxford University Press, Sage, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley
- If the journal you wish to publish in does not allow for the reuse of graduate work in publication, you can request that your dissertation be embargoed when submitting your manuscript to Scholarly Commons. This would delay its public release in the Scholarly Commons by either one or two years. Embargoes are considered on a case-by-case basis and the Libraries typically advises against them as building on one's work is an important part of the scholarly process.
- If you are unsure of your options or how to proceed, there are several avenues of support:
- Reach out to me to help you identify a journal (OA or otherwise) that fits your needs
- Consult with our Copyright Librarian on your rights as an author
- Contact the repository administrators with questions on the Scholarly Commons and embargoes
- Email journals directly to ask them their policies