Well, if the top-tier biblical journals are ones like Journal of Biblical Literature, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, and the mid-range biblical journals something like Interpretation, Horizons: The Journal of Biblical Theology, & Ex Auditu, the lower level but reputable journals would include denominational journals, especially those with a biblical twist (e.g., Review and Expositor which is Baptist), student journals like Koinonia (run by the doctoral students of Princeton Theological Seminary, but open to grad students anywhere)–pretty much anything that is peer reviewed.

Pat,
you will notice in the quote you took from me that I put “lower-level publications“, and I went on to talk about my first publication in the SBL forum. This is one thing that I was thinking of, and there are other online places that I think would qualify as lower-level publishing. You gave two excellent examples as well – book reviews and denominational magazines/periodicals.

I didn’t think it was a throw-away comment

Sorry to misrepresent you, Danny! I wasn’t criticizing at all… I don’t think of “throw-away comment” as a negative thing. I think of it as something said as part of a larger argument/discussion where there isn’t opportunity to define it further (though you did give the one example: SBL Forum). So I was just picking out this one isolated phrase and asking for other possibilities. Thanks for the comment, though. Another question that I’d have, I guess, is what are those “other online places?” And thanks to Michael as well.

So far we’ve got:
-SBL Forum (and perhaps similarly, though not online in the same way, would be AAR’s Religious Studies News).
-Review and Expositor and other denominational journals
-Koinonia (Is this still being published? Their website seems out of date.)

I also noticed that Mark Goodacre has a list of journals with brief descriptions, but I wouldn’t know which ones might be willing to accept good work from masters and early doctoral students (though I know one probably wouldn’t go for the big names like JBL). I suppose that may be a trial and error exercise.

I’m hesitant to distinguish between ‘middle’ and ‘lower’ lest I upset those connected with them! But a few that I’ve published with that are not among the absolutely highest tier include Irish Biblical Studies (based in Northern Ireland) and Neotestamentica (based in South Africa). There are also cases in which newer journals from some of the top-notch publishers may be placed in this category, since they have yet to establish their reputation.

I’ll be interested to hear if Koinonia is still functioning – I also published with them as a student, as well as in Irish Theological Quarterly.

Thanks for the comment on my blog, by the way!
http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/blog/

Thanks! That’s a good comment. I’m not all that comfortable distinguishing from middle and lower publications in a public forum either. I think “reputable” is a key word and perhaps “attainable” would be another one, at least for those of us who are lower on the totem pole as of yet.

I wonder how one might keep an eye out for those newer publications. Are there any news services that track these things? What publishers would be good to look out for?

It might be worth considering what some journals say about themselves as well. One I published an article in made a point about it being listed in ATLA, an interesting measure of ‘quality’, but one marred for me by the fact that a journal like Dead Sea Discoveries is not listed there. Another point made by the same journal was that they were moving towards peer review. And the clincher was that my work would be published next to that of Norman Gottwald. BUT I still won’t be entering that piece for the RAE, prefering peer-reviewed journals. Funny old world.

Don’t let Danny fool ya with his bewitching suggestion. There are no “throw away” journals- just throw away articles. You can find a pearl in a pile of clam urine.

Some of the best essays I’ve read are off the beaten track and some of the worst in the “prestigious” journals (and there’s a bit of hubris there!!!). After all, who really cares about “The Use of The Enclitic In Deutero Isaiah and its Significance for Feminist Hermeneutics” or the like which we find so often in JBL? Such essays serve neither the guild nor the community of faith; rather, they serve the ego of their author and their publisher.

[Put on my librarian hat...] Looks like Koinonia is still being published. It’s an annual publication and Princeton Theological Library has the 2006 issue. So even though their website looks out of date, it appears they’re still publishing on schedule. Patrick, if you wanted to look at an issue to see if it might “fit,” they have it at the library at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Thanks, Nancy. I suppose I could’ve figured that out pretty easily myself Good to have a librarian around.

Jim is the master of misrepresentation! Look at what you have started with the use of the word “throw away” Pat!

It seems to have gone defunct, but the Bible Interpretation website would qualify as well. Seminaries often have annual journals that may only have small readerships but would still serve as good experience.

I think that there are other ‘publications’ or work that also can give you good experience as well as build your CV. I’m doing Logos tagging, I’ve assisted with an Accordance module, and currently I am working on a critical edition text for the Onlince Critical Pseudepigrapha, which is an SBL electronic publication.