Hello. I’m Professor James Arvanitakis from Western Sydney University and over the last five years I spent a lot of time working with PhD students and early career researchers working on paper for publication and one of the questions I always get asked is, “How do I get my first article published or send my paper for publication?”
Tips for getting your research paper published:
Tip one for paper publication is to always pick quality over quantity. Ignore the whole thing about paper publication or perish. You have to write high-quality articles and paper for publication that you’re going to be proud of in 10 or 20 years time, don’t just pump something out for the hell of it. So always think about the quality of what you’re publishing and where you’re going to publish it.
Tip 2 follows Tip 1, that is, pick the right journal to publish in. Pick the right quality journal for your paper publication, one that’s of a high standard and if you have trouble knowing which ones to pick, go to the library and ask them for advice, but also pick the right journal for your research paper publication. If you’re doing qualitative research then publish in a qualitative based journal. Quantitative research, quantitative based journal. You’ve got to make sure the journal that you pick is fit for your paper for publication.
Tip 3 is after you pick the journal is to remember that paper publication is like joining a conversation. That is, you can’t just jump in there without knowing what other people are talking about. What else are people saying in that journal that’s relevant to your research and paper for publication, who are you agreeing with, who are you disagreeing with, who are you challenging, whose work are you extending. This is really important to think about how you reference other authors in that journal and the type of debates that are taking place.
Tip 4, and it sounds a bit banal but is to make sure you read the instructions really, really carefully before sending your paper for publication. Each journal has its own types of approach that it expects you to take, the type of referencing you need to use for paper publication, the type of way you structure your methodology, it’s really important that what you present to the journal actually fits their requirements for a paper for publication. If it doesn’t, they’ll just reject you.
Tip number 5 is to write now and edit later and then send the paper for publication. I’ve talked about this in other videos where I say just get your ideas about paper publication down on paper and then think about the structure you’re going to follow later on. Getting that first word or that first paragraph down is the hardest thing, so just begin to write, go back and structure later.
Tip 6 is to think about co-writers before sending paper for publication. Is it worth co-writing with someone and if it is, make sure you clearly understand who’s going to be the first author, what the different contributors are, what contributions are going to be and how you’re going to contribute to each other’s work before paper publication. It’s really important that it can really add to your publishing to co-publish with someone, it’s a really great thing to do but you’ve got to make sure there is clear understanding of what’s expected early on or things can go very badly during paper publication.
Tip 7 is to learn from rejection. We are all going to get rejected during paper publication. For every one article I’ve had published, and I’ve had quite a few, I’ve probably got five or six rejections. It is very heartbreaking, so my advice to you is accept that it’s going to hurt, accept the fact that it’s going to make you frustrated, accept the fact that it doesn’t feel good, but learn from it. Read the reviewers notes carefully, understand what they’re saying, make the article better and then send the paper for publication again. Review process in paper publication is actually a way to really strengthen our research, it’s really important, it means that our research is ethical and it can be checked by others. So learn from it, although it hurts, you’ll be a better researcher for it.