GULP- Question on publishing an article

airplanenut

OK! I've finally gotten off my butt (to get food, and then back on it) and started working on my COIN research paper... oooooh I love the sound of it!

After starting to write about hammered coins (probably 2/3 to 3/5 done)... the first half of the five topics I plan to write about (the other half is modern production), I have realized that my paper will be, well.... LONG!

It is already onto the third page (double spaced with a 4-line header on Page 1). This means that my paper will probably end up at around 15 pages double-spaced when complete (I plan to write the WHOLE thing on Saturday, if possible, since it is due a week from tomorrow). The remainder of the topics will probably take less writing because it is more my own thinking rather than technical background information, but hey... I write A LOT!

If you recall, I was thinking of getting this paper published when I am done (first thought was "The Numismatist") Now, will they, or anyone else, accept such a long paper (figure 8-10 pages single-spaced, followed by a 2 page works consulted page, as well as some images and LOTS of internal citations, as required to receive a passing grade)? I am not writing for publishment, I thought it would be a neat bonus to writing a good paper.

Any thoughts?

Jeremy

PS- I will post it when I get some more done

JamminJ

Hi Jeremy,

I've published a few papers, mostly in (non numismatic) academic journals, so maybe this can help.

Generally somewhere in the magazine/journal you are considering there will be "submission guidelines" which will tell you where to send your manuscript, what form they expect and what type of acknowledgement (if any) you will receive. I'm not sure about the Numismatist, but as an example on the letters to the editor page in Coinworld they claim to welcome " ...articles... pertaining to coins and coin collecting" and that unsolicited articles will not be returned without a SASE.

You may want to call the editor before your submission for any specific preferences they may have. If they like your article "suggestions" will be made as to changes required for publication with regards to format, length, etc. If the length is really a problem you can always serialize, but length usually shrinks in publication due to dense text and reduced size figures. These can be brutal so don't let them get you down!

Hope this helped.
Good luck and I look forward to reading your article!

-JamminJ

Trime

Airplanenut,
In addition to Coin World, Numismatist, journals of various specialist organizations (Gobrecht Journal,John Reich Journal), and The Asylum (Quarterly Journal of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society), there is also the Numismatic Literary Guild Contest on the Feature Section of the Heritage web site. The actually give $ awards for best articles.
Good luck; writing is fun!

airplanenut

Ooooh... money

The only problem is I believe some sources don't allow direct quotes, especially for profit (gonna paraphrase those )

I guess I didn't think that the print would also be shrunk a lot We'll see when it's done, I guess... I don't care about money, really (in this case ) If nothing else, it would look REALLY good on a college application

Jeremy

DeepCoin

Any proper research paper will need to have the correct attributions. You will definitely need to put in the quotes and footnote everything in the bibliography. That is research paper 101. You are just assembling the knowledge of others and they have to be given the credit for their work or it is plagerism.

Good luck, it sounds like a fun paper.

MICHAELDIXON

"there is also the Numismatic Literary Guild Contest on the Feature Section of the Heritage web site"
Check the dates of the contest. I believe it has ended and the winner announced at the New York show.

lathmach

I have written many numismatic articles for publication. You will not find anyone to publish an article of the length you describe.
Cut it to a page and a half or less and there's a chance.
On the other hand though, you could find a vanity press and have your short story published.


Ray

Keyrock

Regardless of the length, the may break it into two or three parts or their editors may truncate the article. As long as you have quality material and you are not too verbose, you may stand a good chance of getting it published. I would email the ANA, CoinWorld etal to see what their submission guidlines are as JamminJ mentioned. I had sent in a editorial to coin world which was published, however, they did need to "compress" the article to fit the space.

Rich

airplanenut

<< <i>Any proper research paper will need to have the correct attributions. You will definitely need to put in the quotes and footnote everything in the bibliography. That is research paper 101. You are just assembling the knowledge of others and they have to be given the credit for their work or it is plagerism.

Good luck, it sounds like a fun paper. >>


All information is fully cited with an included bibliography, as per MLA standards. I don't want to get expelled...