Publishing From Your Thesis

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Key Nothing better than seeing your name in lights!

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1. Even with some of the most highly published and cited psychologists in the world rejections rates tend to be around 50%. 2. From submission to review rarely takes less than three months. From review to revise and resubmit can take just as long and when finally accepted be prepared to use “in press” for quite some time. 3. For me my particular interest is in latent and multi-level modelling. Thus in every article I write, I push its content as being more than just a substantive article but something that holds methodological implications. 4. Substantive papers with strong methodological implications often have an advantage in applied journals but be aware of the need to consider right from the outset how your findings can be applied by practitioners. 5. Will your supervisor want to go as first author regardless of your contribution? Will he/she allow you to go first if you do most of the work? Who should you include as co-authors? Remember “what you lose on the see-saw, you can make up on the merry-go-round”. 6. Journals often have extremely strict word limits and do not appreciate excessive length, in-text citations, or tables and figures. Do not think one paper can change the world or even your field. Be realistic in the need to set up the story of the paper but acknowledge the limits on how much you can include. Remember one of an editors primary concerns is page length. 7. Often a thesis will include the opportunity for multiple publications. With this in mind it can be tempting to write a conference paper outlining some of the findings with the knowledge that you can do a major paper for a journal later. HOWEVER, most journals will not allow you to publish findings that have been published elsewhere. As this is the case, plan your

major paper first and quarantine those findings before looking for a quick kill on a conference paper. 8. Be aware of short research reports which still count as a paper but are often more realistic targets for thesis based research. 9. If a MS is on your desk it is not on an editors and reviewers desk. Given the lead time that is involved with a journal publications this is unaffordable waste of time.

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Jour • This is likely to sound somewhat opportunist and not in the spirit of intellectual enterprise but quality of the journal is more important than exact fit of an article to a specific journal. The facts are that non-ISI ranked journals may be just as likely to reject your work as the most prestigious journal, means it is in your interests to publish in a journal that impacts the wider academic community. • Start by writing your MS with a few journals in mind. Once written review the journals and make a judgement about which of the highest ranked ISI journals you can get it into. Once this is decided ENSURE you have referenced articles from this journal and display awareness of the journal content by adjusting the level of applied v substantive v methodology influence to suit. Also be aware that if it is a general journal (e.g. Journal of Applied Psychology) be sure to address how your findings can be generalised beyond your specific sample. I recently had an article rejected from Work & Stress largely because the sample was clergy and I had not taken enough care on showing how findings for clergy could be expanded to other professions. • For me my latent modelling skills are fairly good and are rarely utilised effectively in applied papers. As such I try to play up the importance of these skills and how they have been missing from previous research. • STICK TO THE PAGE LIMIT. I get the feeling from editors that they are often as interested in whether the article will fit within page constraints as they are whether the content is of sufficient quality. • Nothing is likely to put an editor or review off as much as sloppy referencing and a lack of attention to detail.

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• You never know who the reviews will be and at our stage in our careers we do not have the clout to really make a critical approach worthwhile. So unless it is critical to your paper avoid where possible being critical of others.

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Jour • Most journal reject around 90 of percent of papers. I had lunch with professor Herb Marsh (one of the most highly productive and well cited psychologists in the world) a few weeks ago and even he suggested he gets around 50% of papers rejected on their first go. It does not mean you are inferior or that your work was terrible and sometimes a rejection can be a matter of unfortunate choice of reviewers, editors with an axe to grind, wrong place wrong time. • If you get rejected you will always get feedback. THIS IS INVALUABLE in trying to get it published elsewhere. Keep it, read it all, review it whenever you are writing a similar paper. This is also the benefit of going to a highly ranked journal first as if you are lucky you will get it accepted and if not you will get feedback from the best people in the field and thus have a far better chance of publishing elsewhere. • Never Ever Ever Ever get rejected and throw the paper away. Use the feedback and prepare it for somewhere else. Also do not view a rejection as an indication that you will need to send it to a far inferior outlet to get it published. Just keep working down the list you prepared at the outset of writing the paper. Indeed I have had a paper rejected from a conference and then used the feedback to get it published in a journal. • Nothing cures the MS rejection blues more than having the article of to a new journal (remember it is better for it to be on someone else's desk

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than yours). I have a policy of trying to have it submitted to a new journal in 48 hours. Indeed this has happened twice this week.

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• This is probably the best news you can hope for as VERY few articles get accepted straight up. Indeed when all reviews have outright accepted my MS with no changes the editor still gave me a revise and resubmit for cosmetic changes. • When you submit an article it is yours to win. When you get a revise and resubmit it is yours to lose. If you carefully respond to reviewers comments, are humble in accepting critiques, and are tougher, respectful, and thankful you are more than likely to get accepted the next time around. • Editors comments are in many respects the most important to address in detail and, if they conflict with reviewers, give precedents to them. This is because an editor will see your revised copy but a review may not. • Respond to the editors and reviewers comments separately. Respond to each point of each review separately even if someone else has brought it up. • The goal of a good revision is to provide so much detail in the revision letter that the editor does not have to reread the paper. Remember that every time it is reread there is an additional chance for problems or critiques to be found.

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Jour Pretty self explanatory really but there is nothing more embarrassing than getting your name or affiliation, or that of a co-authors wrong. When you receive the proofs go over each and every word in a printed and then electronic copy.

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Con Posters are great fun more relaxed and far more beneficial for networking. Conferences are good fun but should be side projects to use your conference funding from the university. They are NOT the place for the best research you have to offer.

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Some conferences like AERA let you publish your paper after presenting it. Others will not. Don’t let your self get stuck with a good paper that will never see the light of day because it was presented in some small conference somewhere.

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Sham Besides having an article published in a top journal the next most important thing is to have it cited. Even in top journals you may only get a few people who read your article for whom the content will be relevant for their own research. With this in mind it is often a good idea to try and promote your research with outside channels. One I have yet to do but will be doing in my work next year is writing press releases of major research findings. Other ideas that have been utilised very well by younger researchers, particularly grad students, is the use of blogs and on line forums.

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