Publishing your research paper needs not be a directionless process. There are numerous resources that have talked about how to publish. Some address the general procedure for publication while others emphasize some tricks and tips you may overlook. Furthermore, some sources consider only one aspect of publication that may keep you from your desired result. Here is a collection of material on the subject and a summary of what you can learn from them.

What They Don’t Tell You about Academic Publishing

In this Youtube post, Dr. Andy Stapleton shares some peer-review rules that may keep you from getting published. He starts by explaining that academic publishing is a gamed process where editors may overlook some really good papers because of unrelated reasons. The discussion delved into five aspects that could impede or lead to paper publication.

Predatory journals

Stapleton explains that not all journal articles are the same. Some may be predatory because they promise to publish journal articles for a fee without the prerequisite editing and peer-review process. If you do not know which journals are predatory, you may end up publishing your research paper there and face unwanted outcomes. When an expert checks your portfolio of work, they can tell whether you published your material in credible or predatory papers, and the latter would hurt your reputation.

Science celebrities                                                             

Another way you can fast-track your process to publication is by working with science celebrities. The speaker gives examples of when he realized a science celebrity had published close to 60 scientific papers in one year. He explained that most of these celebrity scientists simply edit another person’s work because their seminal paper may have been groundbreaking. He is not calling scientific celebrities dishonest; he is merely saying that they can make things easy for you.

The rules of author order

The authors that really matter in a published paper are the first and last ones. The primary researcher is often the first while the last one probably contributed financially to the research. Others in between the first and the last simply jostle for space. Therefore, when publishing your research paper, strive to be among the first.

Citation games

Some editors may obligate you to cite their work. Stapleton has sometimes bowed to pressure to use the editors’ recommendations. You may need to pick your battles as editors are gate keepers and they want to benefit themselves.

Politics

Always remember that even if you have a good paper, a publisher may reject it. Therefore, use contacts you may have within that publishing house to push the materials. Stapleton has used his networks to get past biased gatekeepers but even then, the peer review process will still block you if your work is not good enough. In summary, this article is useful to someone that already is familiar with the research process and would like to know some hidden hurdles that they need to overcome to publish

How to Publish Your First Research Paper

In the above video, the content maker (Educational Hub) illustrates the exact process a person may go through while publishing a research paper. However, the steps only focus on submitting the work to a publisher, not how to do all the heavy lifting in the research process. Some of the tips include:

• Finding the appropriate journal and signing up: Pick a journal that is reputable and in line with your specialty area like Stratford. You probably need to do some research before selecting one.
• Login and type the abstract and title: You should have an already written abstract which you can copy and paste. Additionally, ensure your title reflects the content in your work.
• Upload the file and insert keywords: Keywords are useful for the search process. A reader may not have time to read through your manuscript but keywords can indicate what you are about.
• Authors and institutions: Be sure to list all the authors involved in the research. Mention your institutional affiliation and other relevant professional details. Since it is an academic paper, the publishers may confirm whether you truly are affiliated with the stated institution.
• Details and comments: You need to specify who funded the research if this was the case. Other details relevant to the paper may include the tables, word count and the manuscripts you had submitted. You also need to confirm whether you have any conflict of interest and the ethical guidelines you adhered to.
• Review and submit: The last step gives you an opportunity to condense all the information needed in publishing your research paper. It also enables you to proofread the material before clicking send.

Overall, this source is useful if you would like to know beforehand what resources you need before submitting a paper for publishing. It skips the preliminary research steps.

The STM Report: An Overview of Scientific and Scholarly Journal Publishing

The purpose of the STM report to help authors and publishers disseminate research results in medicine, technology and science effectively. Therefore, Mark Ware and Michael Mabel talk about the research process, scholarly communication, a journal publication process and the role of technology. The report offers the following insights:

Scholarly communication

Journals are a key part of scholarly communication. They archive information for future references and preserve quality. Furthermore, researchers combine both oral and written communication within a technological framework.

The science, technology and medicine journal publishing industry

Publishing your research paper would likely put you in contact with a $10 billion industry as of 2013. 30,000 employees work in the industry with most making manuscripts. They disseminate these English journals worldwide with about 2.5 million articles.

Research behavior

As you work on your manuscript, consider certain behavior patterns within your target market and in the research community. A key motivation for publication is career enhancement while other researchers seek funding.

In terms of reading, more researchers are reading more but the time they spend per article is reducing. Therefore, abstracts and introductions are more critical. The authors call the skimming behavior bouncing. Additionally, peer review processes are changing with the introduction of open peer review where reviewers disclose their names. Others focus on soundness rather than significance.

Technology

The research publication process is also incorporating a lot more technology. These days it has become easier for people to mine data for research. It is also easier to conduct literature reviews. Furthermore, collaboration between users is increasing at a rapid pace.

All technological ideas are helpful in demonstrating to researchers the options that are available to them and what they can do to make journals more likely to publish them.

Series: Practical Guidance to Qualitative Research. Part 4: Trustworthiness and Publishing

Irene Korstjens and Albine Moser aimed at addressing the relevance of trustworthiness in qualitative research publishing. They restricted their analysis to one research design because scientific papers may not have a positive attitude towards its.

Quality criteria for qualitative research

• Credibility: Your research paper needs to stem from the original data and ensure that you correctly interpreted what the participants were saying. Using triangulation through employment of multiple data sources over a long period of time helps to alleviate this process.
• Transferability: Qualitative studies need to be transferable to other settings, respondents and research. Make it transferrable by having an elaborate description.
• Dependability: Make your study findings dependable by ensuring they are stable over time. The study participants should support data even after a long time.
• Conformability: The degree to which other researchers corroborate findings. They need to confirm that the assertions in a research are not mere figments of the primary researcher’s imagination. Have an audit trail describing the steps you took and the context around it. Ethics plays a key role in conformability.
• Reflexibility: Always do a critical self-reflection as a research. Find out whether you have preferences, preconceptions, and biases. Furthermore, ensure that you do not have a subjective relationship to the participants. Consider using a diary for that purpose.

Publishing

After completing the qualitative study, researchers need to publish their work. As you prepare to publish, adhere to the usual structure including introduction, methods, result, and discussion. However, qualitative studies are more flexible because a narrative structure may necessitate a combination of the result and discussion section.

When making the findings section, try and be as precise as possible. You may have themes, relationships and interpretations or even model development. Have quotes, texts, and excerpts to illustrate the richness of your data.

As you choose a journal, consider your research. Find the preferred problems, settings, and field before settling on a publication. Consult other researchers, a journal index and journals themselves on their scope, aims, and guidelines. Contact the editor if you are unsure about whether they accept qualitative articles. Find the top three qualitative journals as a guide on how to craft your manuscripts and read through the journal guidelines.

Editor considerations

All editors consider the three main questions: is it new, relevant or true? Stratford considers these aspects and others like if results support the process. However, you must realize that some rank qualitative analyses lower than quantitative work. Therefore, in your cover letter ensure that you explain why a qualitative study was necessary and why you deviated slightly from the normal structure.

In summary, the source claims that qualitative research should conform to four key standards. These include credibility, dependability, transferability, and conformability. Researchers working on qualitative work ought to iterate their data analysis so that it is fine tuned. When an editor gets a piece of paper for publication, they ask three key questions: is it relevant, true or new? Lastly, always emphasize these qualities in the cover letter you send. Since qualitative designs are hard to replicate, explain why chose such a study. The article is useful when publishing your research paper if you are doing a qualitative study and if you are in a field which does not prioritize qualitative papers.

How to Publish in Academic Journals: Writing a Strong and Organized Introduction Section

The article is helpful to you if you are just starting out your analysis. It highlights most of the issues that could make you miss publications. The source offers methods, data analysis, and research design issues as it could impede success in publications.

• Research question: Ensure that your research question is clear at the beginning of the paper. You may face rejection if your questions are poorly-framed and vague. Include this answerable research question in the abstract and the title of the paper.  It is not enough to merely mention the general topic. Talk about the specific area of interest and how your work differs for mothers. Find a happy medium between a narrow topic and a broad one.
• Draft the introduction: Have the main research question at least in the first few sentences in the introduction. You can then summarize other related questions. Mention some of the gaps in literature and what most scholars have focused on. Briefly add the empirical evidence and contributions to theory.
• Avoid common mishaps: Do not simply mention the topic or the fact that you will explore a certain area. Always mention how your paper will differ from others before explaining how you will study the research topic. Additionally, not mentioning what other studies have done could pose a challenge.

Overall, the analysis states that specificity is critical in crafting good introductions. Endeavor to outline your reason for research in the first few paragraphs. The research questions should contain the issue you are addressing and always mention how your research is different from others.

A Summary of the Sources for Publishing Your Research Paper

The sources are useful to you depending on your research process, field, and interests. Some information demonstrates the background issues that you need to address. You may have to use connections and avoid predatory journals as you seek publications. Other articles talk about the industry outlooks, how readers are changing and the technological factors surrounding journal publications. Other sources only dwell on specific publication stages or research aspects. For instance, you may need to know how to write a proper introduction or compile the result and discussion section.

Some articles are only for science fields or for people who belong to science, technology and medicine fields. Such areas warrant attention because of the special requirements unique to them. Others assume that a person has already completed their paper and simply need to know the resources that you should have as you compile the information. A special emphasis should be on avoiding common mishaps. Overall, the information available on the topic is useful to you based on where you are in the publication process. Select the most relevant and use the advice if it is applicable.