Publishing Research Papers: 5 Expert Advice

When you write a quality research piece, particularly a thesis or dissertation covering a particular subject within your study discipline, it is often an option to have it published publicly for future use. This is a useful process for many reasons --- it legitimizes your study, makes it available to other researchers, increases the odds it will be used for further analysis within the field, and also gets your name out there as professionally and academically capable.

Not every thesis or dissertation gets published, though. To make sure yours does, there are some important rules to follow.

5 Rules for Getting Your Research Paper Published

• Start Savvy: Before you begin your project, make sure you establish that one of your end goals is to be published. To be considered for professional publishing, you must complete the process just right. Connect with your department counselor and ask for tips that you can follow before you start. Each department, each study topic, and each discipline has a specific set of criteria for determining which ones are the best projects. Follow that criteria and keep it in mind throughout the process. You may be required to do extra research, or complete extra planning steps in order to be in the running for publishing, but in the end that is worth it and completely attainable if you plan ahead from the beginning.
• Meet with Sponsors: If your research is sponsored, consider meeting with the sponsorship body or contact to discuss your overall goals. Not only do you want to solve a particular issue, or answer a set question, but you would also like to get your information (as well as theirs) published. They can help guide you as well.
• Work Smart: Detail everything. This is important for any research project – but critical if you are to be published. Your citations and quality of research must be top notch. Only use source material that is credible and valuable. And always follow the guidelines for creating new data.
• Work Hard: You will have to put more effort into a project that will be published. Go the extra step. If there are extra items that could be included, include them. Focus on the end goal and add the extra effort necessary to make it a solid piece of work worthy of review from professionals in the field.
• Submit: Once you have completed your project, submit it to the proper contacts for inclusion in scholarly journals and other academic works. Make sure that you follow the rules of submission – and don’t double-submit with publications that require exclusivity.