1. Publishing in journals
Nicola Yeates
Dept. Social Policy
PGR residential weekend 15-17th June 2012

2. • why publishing from your thesis is
important
• developing a publications strategy
• dealing with rejection and
revision

3. • Contribute to • Good for your CV
knowledge • Improves your
• Duty to disseminate credibility
academic work • Good for the OU
• Helps with networking • Good for future
• Raises the profile of employment
your specialism elsewhere
• Feedback • Publishing becomes
easier with
experience

4. Where to start
Do you have publication in mind?
Conversion into publishable papers
– get comments on drafts
– develop a network of colleagues
– get a foot in the door:
• book reviews
• short ‘opinion’ piece

5. Journals
• Know your audience
– Read journal aims and scope, instructions for
authors
• What is important for you?
– Getting published?
– Time scale?
– Journal reputation?
– Impacts beyond academia?

6. Dealing with rejection and
revision
• If at first you don’t succeed, don’t be
discouraged
• Highly-rated journals have high rejection
rates
• The norm is for articles to undergo
revision before they are finally published
• This is not a democratic process, there is
no right of appeal!

7. Common reasons for rejecting articles
Not sending a paper out to review:
- does not fit aims and scope of the journal
- does not conform with journal guidelines to authors (e.g.
over/under-length, incomplete references, house style,
no abstract)
- has been published elsewhere
- is known to be under review with another journal
Not accepting a paper after revisions have been
made: paper does not satisfactorily address referees’ and
editor’s comments

8. Dealing with feedback
Take Editor’s (and referees’) feedback seriously
What they are saying? minor or major
revisions? An entire rethink of your approach
(rewrite)?
Be reflexive:
- was it really the right journal?
- was the article really ready for publication?
- did the article really conform with all the
journal’s requirements? (house style etc)

9. Revising your paper
• Make sure you fully understand what the concerns are: if
you don’t ask for clarification from the Editor.
• Talk to your supervisor about the referees’ reports
• Follow referees’ and editor’s suggestions for revision.
• Before sending in the revised paper, check it conforms
with house style, bibliography, title, abstract etc.
• Sending in the revised paper: covering note explaining in
detail how you addressed the concerns
• Be willing to do further amendments if required.
• Journals tend to limit to one resubmission (i.e. this is not
an endless process of review/revision)

10. If all else fails…
• Know that you have addressed all valid
criticisms of the paper as far as you feel
able to
• Withdraw with dignity
• Submit your paper to another journal –
and start the process again!