Facilitator guide
Preparation, timed lesson plan, answer guidance, discussion prompts, attribution, and scope boundaries.
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Compare the requirement that changes the submission.
A printable 25-minute workshop for librarians, writing centers, graduate seminars, and research offices. Learners compare two candidate journals around one real decision and leave with a source-backed next action.
Two designed files
Everything needed to run the activity.
The web page is the overview. The downloadable PDFs are the teaching materials learners and facilitators can actually use.
Learner worksheet
A spacious evidence record for comparing the source, requirement, package consequence, interpretation, and next verification.
Download learner worksheet25-minute lesson
Move from lookup to publishing judgment.
Use an active manuscript when possible. The exercise compares a decision, not the overall quality of either journal.
- 0-4 min1
Frame one real decision
Choose an article type, disclosure, required file, or other instruction that could change the submission package.
- 4-9 min2
Choose two candidate journals
Use two plausible journals for the same manuscript and state what the team needs to decide.
- 9-17 min3
Trace the official evidence
Open each linked source and record what the instruction visibly requires, who owns it, and when it was checked.
- 17-22 min4
Separate evidence from inference
Distinguish the publisher instruction from the team interpretation and keep any unresolved question visible.
- 22-25 min5
Leave a reproducible record
Name the package consequence and the verification that must happen again before upload.
The evidence standard
The comparison must leave a trace.
The deliverable is not a journal verdict. It is a compact record a coauthor can inspect and repeat without relying on memory.
REQUIREMENT COMPARISON RECORD
- Decision
- What could change the package or route?
- Evidence
- What does each official source visibly require?
- Interpretation
- What will the research team do differently?
- Uncertainty
- What remains conditional or manuscript-specific?
- Next check
- What must be verified again before upload?
Adopt and reuse
Use it without a permission exchange.
Add the activity to a LibGuide, seminar, workshop, or researcher-support page. Keep the canonical link and version with the material.
Comparing Journal Submission Requirements (25 minutes). Learners use the Manusights Journal Requirements Observatory to compare two candidate journals around one submission-package decision. They trace each requirement to a current official source, distinguish a package-changing instruction from general guidance, and record the verification that must happen before a manuscript is submitted.The live official journal or publisher page always controls the submission decision. The Observatory is a maintained pilot, not a complete directory, journal ranking, compliance certification, or acceptance prediction.