Writing an academic journal paper

Hello there! This series has been created to help guide you through the whole academic publishing process, from getting started writing your first paper to understanding academic peer review. 

There is loads to cover and it is a multi-part series covering:

1. Why you should be trying to publish
2. What to publish from your work
3. Choosing when to publish
4. Deciding where to publish
5. How to write the first draft of an academic research paper
6. How to write a figure legend + published examples
7. Scope and Delimitations: Examples (and How to Get Them Right)
8. What to include in a statement of significance (impact statement) for your paper
9. The peer review process and making manuscript revisions
10. Research Paper Author Order Explained
11. Bonus post: the little-known way to publish in Science and Nature*
12. Bonus bonus post: Peer-reviewing journal articles: Should you do it? Sharing what I learned from my first experiences

I first started documenting the publishing process after having the first paper from my PhD work accepted. I’ve since published several more, learning lots along the way and I’m keen to share my journey and suggestions with you to help you avoid some of the pitfalls I fell in to. 

Prefer to read all the information in one place? I’ve now turned it into a 75 page eBook so you can read it offline, highlight sections and add notes! The book is available for free to all subscribers:

*I don’t want to get your hopes up: unless you’re a much more competent and/or lucky scientist than I, you might not be able to publish your actual academic research in these journals. But it’s still worth considering, read the article.

If instead of help writing your first paper you’d like help writing your thesis, I’ve started writing a guide for that too. The first post is Thesis acknowledgements: Samples and how to write your own thesis or dissertation acknowledgements.