Getting published
The National University of Singapore Library has an informative guide on getting published. It includes advice on research impact measurement and author profiles.
https://libguides.nus.edu.sg/publishing/introduction
The University of Sydney Library also has a very clear resource on strategic publishing. It includes metrics and attention once your paper is published or publicly available.
https://library.sydney.edu.au/research/strategic-publishing/index.php?section=overview
See also Publishing your research for clear points to consider. Access the module via the Postgraduate Research Skills at Te Tumu Herenga webpage.
Handy tips
- Make sure you have an ORCiD. (See also additional information on author IDs and Six ways to make your ORCID iD work for you)
- Decide how you want your name to be structured and use it consistently when submitting publications.
If there are authors with the same name as you consider including your full middle name or middle initial/s in your name. Whatever you decide, make sure to use it consistently for all your publications. - Use your institutional affiliation consistently when submitting publications eg make sure University of Auckland is listed as or is part of your institutional affiliation.
It is a good idea to have your name and institutional affiliation consistent across your ORCiD, Scopus ID and any other ID systems eg Publons author ID, Google Scholar profile and apply consistently to papers you are submitting for publication. |
Discoverability
You want your research and papers to be discoverable.
- Choose keywords and phrases and use these throughout the title and abstract. When searching Google Scholar the algorithm means those papers that have the searched words in their title usually surface to the top of the results list. For more see How to choose effective keywords for your article.
- Title is important.
- Choose a smart title for your article/paper that describes and incorporates key phrases and words related to your topic.
- Title length is ideally 15 words or less
- Keywords or phrases should be the first 7 to 8 words of the title. Say what it is about early in the title.
- Cutesy title to stimulate interest? Maybe but make sure the subtitle is plain and has keywords and phrases about your topic
- Don't use abbreviations or acronyms
- Abstract. Express key points and findings in simple language. Remember Google shows the first 65 characters for an item.
- If you research is about New Zealand or is New Zealand based/focused please make sure to include the phrase New Zealand somewhere in the abstract so your papers are more easily surfaced in database searches.
- If your research is about Pacific populations in New Zealand please consider using the terms Pacific peoples or use Pasifika in the abstract.
- Google search marketing for academic articles includes handy tips for keywords, abstract, graphics and more
- Link your paper from where ever you can eg institutional respositories and preprints such as medRxiv, PsyArXiv and BioRxiv.
Quality
21% of initial submissions are rejected because of quality concerns. Make sure your paper has a high standard of english and grammar. Read Q&A Niamh Brennan: 100 rules for publishing in top journals A checklist for success in NatureINDEX.
Have a look at:
Guerin, C. (2020). Writing an article – how is it different from writing a thesis?. DoctoralWritingSIG https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2020/06/09/writing-an-article-how-is-it-different-from-writing-a-thesis/
Kibbe, M. R. (2013). How to write a paper. ANZ Journal of Surgery, 83(1-2), 90-92. doi:10.1111/ans.12036
Gewin, V. (2018). How to write a first-class paper. Nature, 555(7694). doi:10.1038/d41586-018-02404-4
Mensh, B., & Kording, K. (2017). Ten simple rules for structuring papers. PLoS Computational Biology, 13(9), e1005619. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005619
Schimel, J. (2012). Writing science: How to write papers that get cited and proposals that get published. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Large raw data tables
- Consider putting these in figshare.
For more information about figshare see the Data Publishing section in Research Data on the Centre for e-Research website - ScienceNature has a list of recommended data repositories
- PLoS also has a list of recommended data repositories
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