Publishing in journals

Nicola Yeates

Dept. Social Policy

PGR residential weekend 15-17th June 2012

• why publishing from your thesis is important

• developing a publications strategy

• dealing with rejection and revision  

• Contribute to knowledge

• Duty to disseminate academic work

• Helps with networking• Raises the profile of

your specialism• Feedback

• Good for your CV• Improves your

credibility• Good for the OU• Good for future

employment elsewhere

• Publishing becomes easier with experience

Where to start

Do you have publication in mind?

Conversion into publishable papers– get comments on drafts – develop a network of colleagues– get a foot in the door:

• book reviews• short ‘opinion’ piece

Journals

• Know your audience– Read journal aims and scope, instructions for

authors

• What is important for you?– Getting published?– Time scale?– Journal reputation?– Impacts beyond academia?

Dealing with rejection and revision

• If at first you don’t succeed, don’t be discouraged

• Highly-rated journals have high rejection rates

• The norm is for articles to undergo revision before they are finally published

• This is not a democratic process, there is no right of appeal!

Common reasons for rejecting articles

Not sending a paper out to review: - does not fit aims and scope of the journal - does not conform with journal guidelines to authors (e.g.

over/under-length, incomplete references, house style, no abstract)

- has been published elsewhere - is known to be under review with another journal

Not accepting a paper after revisions have beenmade: paper does not satisfactorily address referees’ and

editor’s comments

Dealing with feedback

Take Editor’s (and referees’) feedback seriously

What they are saying? minor or major revisions? An entire rethink of your approach (rewrite)?

Be reflexive: - was it really the right journal? - was the article really ready for publication? - did the article really conform with all the

journal’s requirements? (house style etc)

Revising your paper

• Make sure you fully understand what the concerns are: if you don’t ask for clarification from the Editor.

• Talk to your supervisor about the referees’ reports• Follow referees’ and editor’s suggestions for revision.• Before sending in the revised paper, check it conforms

with house style, bibliography, title, abstract etc.• Sending in the revised paper: covering note explaining in

detail how you addressed the concerns • Be willing to do further amendments if required. • Journals tend to limit to one resubmission (i.e. this is not

an endless process of review/revision)

If all else fails…

• Know that you have addressed all valid criticisms of the paper as far as you feel able to

• Withdraw with dignity

• Submit your paper to another journal – and start the process again!