As I write this post, two years have passed since I successfully defended my thesis. Recently, I have received confirmation that two of my papers have been accepted for publication, and I'm in the process of responding to the reviewers' comments. One is a paper I have co-authored with my first supervisor which has been accepted by the journal 'Teaching in Higher Education' for a forthcoming Special Issue titled: 'Critical Perspectives on Teaching in the Multilingual University'. The other is a single-authored paper which has been accepted by ELT Journal.  

Having reached this stage of positive outcomes after a few attempts over the past two years,  I thought I would share my experiences, in the hope that it gives some advice to other ECRs. Through my reflection, I have come up with 6 tips on what I have learned throughout the process of trying to get published.

1. Ask for advice 

Publishing advice is likely to be given in your viva, but if not pursue this line of inquiry. The examiners are experts in your field who have read your entire thesis. They are likely to see individual papers that can be extracted from your thesis and may also be able to recommend journals for you to aim for with these papers. At the time of my viva, one of my examiners kindly gave me suggestions as to three potential papers to write from my thesis. Two years later, I have written all three. Two have been accepted, and the other is currently under review. You should also seek publishing advice from your supervisors.

2. Do your 'homework'

The feeling of submitting a paper to a journal is quite exhilarating, but to maximise your opportunity to get published you will need to do your homework. For instance, have you carefully considered whether your paper fits the 'Aims and Scope' of the journal? Have you looked at other sample papers from this journal and followed a similar organisational and writing style? Have you drawn on other articles from the journal? If not, this may indicate that the journal may not be the 'right fit' for your paper. Have you paid particular attention to the referencing and citation conventions of the journal? Have you considered the new contribution that your paper makes to the field? Try to answer these questions to summarise your contribution in no more than 100 words: What is your paper's 'unique selling point'? Why is it worth publishing? Not only will this help you narrow the focus of your paper, it will also help you think of points to include in a cover letter (if the journal requires you to submit one). You may also find it useful to write an answer to the question of: How does my paper fit the aims and scope of the journal?

3. Take rejection in a positive way 

Doing your 'homework' by no means guarantees that your paper will be published. In some cases your paper might not be sent out for review by the editor. In other cases, you may get asked to rewrite, resubmit and then get rejected. However, if your paper is reviewed and later rejected, you can take the reviewers' comments into consideration to help you strengthen the paper. It is unethical to submit a paper simultaneously to multiple journals as you are asking reviewers to do twice (or more if you submit to many journals simultaneously) the amount of work. As an alternative, you may take the approach of revising and resubmitting the paper to another journal following rejection from one journal; however, if the paper gets rejected continuously - having received more than enough 'it is with regret' emails - take this as an indication that you need to substantially refocus the paper. Don't put too much pressure on yourself to publish 'x' amount of papers by a certain period. Sometimes it takes time for your thinking on a paper to develop to get it to where it needs to be. You also need to develop a 'thick skin' as rejection is common, and the critique you receive should be taken constructively. 

4. Give yourself a 'breather' 

As a researcher you are likely to have a number of avenues that you want to eagerly pursue once you have finished your thesis. For instance, you may get inspired to pursue additional aspects connected to your research or you may want to be involved in new collaborative projects. However, starting new research and collecting more data is time consuming and gets in the way of your writing time. You have invested considerable time and effort in putting your thesis together, you should now invest some time and effort in taking it apart by extracting papers from it and allowing your thinking to mature on your thesis. On reflection, this is one of the best pieces of advice I got from my supervisor. In the two years since my viva I have not started any other projects. In this time I have written 3 papers from my thesis. Additionally, I am also planning to submit a proposal to a publisher with the intention of writing a monograph which reflects how my thinking has been shaped on my thesis since I submitted it. I don't think I would've gotten to this point had I involved myself earlier in other projects.    

5. Gain experience

You may naturally be drawn to submit your papers to indexed journals with excellent reputations. This inclination may occur as we are aiming to prove the credibility of our thesis, and publishing in these journals would give our research the 'seal of approval'. And of course there are a multitude of other reasons for why we may aim for these journals, e.g. our future job prospects will be improved. However, the standards of these journals are extremely high and the publishing rate is extremely competitive. Writing a paper for a journal requires a totally different 'canvas' to the one used to write your thesis. For example, the journal 'Teaching in Higher Education' receives more than 500 articles each year and only around 50 get published. To gain experience, you may wish to try and publish in lower-ranked journals during your doctorate rather than wait till you graduate. For instance, you may wish to write papers based on smaller research projects you have conducted as part of your training, or you may wish to write your literature review section as a stand-alone systematic literature review study. Aiming for lower-ranked journals will give you a better opportunity to publish these papers. This will be a valuable experience that introduces you to the publishing process and feeds into the later writing of your thesis. And of course, the papers will also help increase your research profile. Additionally, publishing in a lower-ranked journal will still allow your research to reach your audience. 

6. Be proactive

Keep an eye out for special issues that may be fitting for specific papers from your thesis. Approach your supervisors about the possibility of co-authoring a paper from your thesis. By co-authoring with my supervisor I found this to be a great mentoring experience that I have benefited vastly from. Create CoPs (Communities of Practice). Join research networks and professional bodies. Being on mailing lists can make you aware of calls for chapters, conferences, special talks, master classes, peer reviewing opportunities, useful articles, the latest research, SIGs and other professional bodies to join. Present your working papers at conferences. Try to form a critical reading group before you submit your papers, this can help you to strengthen and refocus your paper before submission. 

Even though you may not see the 'fruits of your labor' for some time, be aware that your engagement with editors and reviewers, whether it leads to a publication or not, is all part of further shaping you as a researcher and writer!