Getting published in academic journals
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This document provides advice for academics on publishing in academic journals. It discusses: 1) Framing research topics and literature reviews within the scope and language of the target journal. 2) Following common journal article structures such as clear introductions, literature reviews, methodology sections, etc. 3) Developing a clear and compelling argument that synthesizes the existing literature. 4) Crafting research that can be built upon and contribute to the field in order to increase the journal's impact factor.
Getting published in academic journals
- 1. Dr Niamh O Riordan Whitaker Institute J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway
- 3. Principle: Each journal in your field is effectively constructing a ‘conversation’ about its core topics. When you write for these journals, you must take part in that conversation. Tactics: ◦ Frame your topic using the language and style of the target journal. As part of this process, ensure you’ve cited any literature on your topic from that journal. If you’re not seeing relevant literature in that journal, think about finding another target
- 4. Principle: Editors are happiest when papers are written in forms they recognise: ◦ Introduction: Motivation – gap – research question ◦ Literature: Constructs core argument; structure resembles a funnel ◦ Methodology: Clear expression of approach and credibility / rigour ◦ Findings: Data oriented ◦ Discussion: Links the data to issues raised ◦ Conclusion: Contribution – limitations – future research (operates at a higher level of abstraction than discussion). Tactics: ◦ Emphasis: Check the word counts of these sections in the target journal to see what they consider most important ◦ Readability: Use a readability index calculator to make sure your writing is readable; make the most use out of tables, figures and maps as you can, making sure they’re clearly labelled and easy to understand ◦ Flow: make sure paragraphs start with the main point, that each paragraph has only one main point and that the last sentence of each paragraph links to the next one. ◦ Mirroring: The introduction motivates the paper by raising particular issues and arguing that the paper addresses them. So make sure that each of these issues is revisited in the findings / discussion / conclusion. Don’t raise issues at the start and abandon them. Don’t introduce new issues at the end of the paper.
- 5. Principle: An intelligible paper makes one key argument. This must ‘fall’ out of a reading of the literature. Some way of synthesizing the literature to show the argument is needed. Tactics: ◦ Tables, figures and conceptual maps are very useful devices for clarifying the argument. Keep a list of papers that do a great job of analyzing and synthesizing literature.
- 6. Principle: editors are looking to boost the impact factor of their journals. Forget about whether or not your work is ‘interesting’. Ask yourself if it contains elements that can be used by other researchers (conceptual frameworks, methodologies, calls for research, conclusions about the state of the art) Tactics: ◦ Topic selection: An interesting topic will carry a lot of weight with editors. This could mean that it’s on an emerging or hot topic or that it addresses a core area of research in the field ◦ Emulation: Think about the kinds of sentences or arguments that you cite in your work and mimic these sentences. Think about the kinds of frameworks that you use to build your research. Are your frameworks just as useful
- 7. Principle: Good papers are ‘architected’: they are well thought out, well designed, carefully planned. Writing is itself a form of analysis but it very rarely happens that a poorly planned paper can make it to a top journal without serious amounts of re- engineering. Tactics: ◦ Start with a structured abstract. Write this carefully and then use it as a plan to guide the rest of the work. ◦ Carefully plan the paper at a high level from the beginning to the extent that you could actually start writing in the middle if you wanted to. One way of ensuring the paper is well structured is to emulate a published paper
- 9. Principle: the best way to get ahead in academia is to publish well and publish often. Tactics: ◦ Co-authorship: Effective co-authorship is the best way to ensure you develop a strong publication record. Make sure effort and credit are tallied: if you’re doing all the work, you should be first author ◦ Planning: Failing to plan at least 12 months ahead is a serious rookie mistake. Set targets and agree deadlines with co-authors. Be realistic about how long it takes to write a paper. Think carefully about maximising the impact of the work by planning to build on conference papers. Be stingy about your data: don’t give it all away at once. Target journals at different ranks. Think about working on fast and slow burners at the same time. Harvest the low hanging fruit: if that paper you really want to write just isn’t coming to you, move on for now
- 10. Principle: it’s no good getting published if no-one knows about or cites your work Tactics: ◦ Put your work on institutional repositories ◦ Put your work on your own website (using wordpress or similar) ◦ Use social media (linkedin, slideshare, twitter) Make (final) drafts of your papers available online* Make presentation slides available ◦ Visit other universities to promote your research * Make sure this is not in breach of individual journals’ copyright policies
Editor's Notes
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