Publishing in the Journal Literature of Library and Information Science: A Survey of Manuscript Review Processes and Acceptance

The journal literature of library and information science is important because it not only enhances the ability of librarians to do their work, but also provides a major part of the scholarly underpinnings, both theoretical and applied, for the field. Many academic librarians are expected to publish in the journal literature as part of their faculty responsibilities. There is keen interest on the part of academic librarians in assessing the quality of library and information science journals, the methods used to review unsolicited manuscripts, and the acceptance rates for those manuscripts. This article reports on a survey of library and information science journal editors. The survey results show that thirty-four of the sixty-eight journals covered by the survey utilize some form of blind review for unsolicited manuscripts. The proliferation of new journal titles in the field has meant that there are many more publishing outlets for potential authors. This survey shows that the acceptance rates reported in earlier studies in 1978 and 1988 have risen for a majority of the journals reported in this study.