Does a university journal count as a previous publication?

I published two stories in my university journal. A publication that is not available to the public and prints less than 500 copies. I was hesitant about publishing the second piece because I wanted to submit it to a literary magazine. My instructors all assured me that it would not count as a previous publication because it is not available to the public, has less than 500 copies, I retain all rights to the story, and that magazines can't count a university publication that meets this criteria has a previous pub. These are all published authors so I trusted what they had to say, but since then, I've spoken to other authors who say that it does count. I don't want to submit something as unpublished and have a problem. Not sure who to believe. Help!

Old Hack said:

There's no one rule for this.

If you want to submit them for publication elsewhere you could mention that they were selected for inclusion in your university's end-of-year anthology, which isn't available to anyone outside the university (have I got that right?). This makes it clear that they've not been published commercially but have appeared in a small anthology; and it points out that your work was considered really good at that stage.

Click to expand...

Not really an anthology, but I think your suggestion would work all the same. It's a student run literary journal that gives students selected for the internship the opportunity to experience the publishing process, but copies of the journal are only available to students of the university. There is a launch party attended by faculty, students, and that year's chosen authors. Authors are allowed to bring two guests.

Thanks for your help!