Publish Your First Research Paper: A Complete Guide

Conquer the world of academic publishing! This guide walks you through every step of publishing your first research paper, from choosing a journal to navigating peer review.

In academia, to publish a research paper for the first time is no small feat. Students, scholars, and academics who aspire to thrive in research know the equity that’s put into publishing the first-ever manuscript. While it is exciting, the task of actually publishing can be quite daunting and intimidating to many. This makes it crucial for researchers to fully familiarize themselves with paper publishing journals and how to publish a paper. To enable first-time authors to tackle the challenges that come with publishing a research paper for the first time, we have curated the key aspects and critical steps pertaining to the publishing process.

 

Understanding the Publishing Process:

Successful publication of a research paper consists of several steps which are crucial for authors. Here are the steps authors must be aware of:

• Choosing the right journal for publishing: It’s important for authors to carefully decide where to publish research paper as the right journal can be highly beneficial to them in terms of speed of publication, quality of peer review, affordability, scope of the journal, finding the right target audience, etc. 
• Formatting the draft as per the publishing platform: For simple and seamless journal paper publication, authors must adhere to the formatting guidelines of the publication they finally opt for. Once the editing and formatting are done as per the publisher’s requirements, the paper is ready for submission.
• Submitting the manuscript: Submitting a manuscript online is usually a swift process depending on the journal. Most of them ask authors to register themselves followed by providing specific information about their papers before submitting. They must also choose between open-access and subscription-based journals for publishing. Along with manuscripts, researchers are usually required to submit cover letters, figures, and supplementary data in platform-specific format.
• Initial quality check: This is a step that ensures the preliminary requirements of the submitted manuscript are met. In the next step, editors are assigned to carry out the peer review process.
• Peer review: The peer review process is a measure to ensure the quality and authenticity of the content submitted. Reviewers may be chosen at random and/or authors may refer them to assess the quality of paper submissions.
• Editing the draft if required and resubmitting the manuscript: Post peer review, authors hear back from the editors with the necessary corrections in case needed. After completing the revision, authors can resubmit their manuscripts for further review and processing.

Getting published: This is the ultimate step where all the hard work pays off and after the resubmitted draft is authenticated, based on its publishability, it gets published in a journal.

Choosing the Right Journal:

If you’re wondering how to publish a paper in journal, the first step to consider is finding the right journal. The journal choice makes a large difference in the impact of research and its visibility. To ensure you pick only the best journal for your research, consider the following factors

• Readership of the journal:

The ideal journal will amplify the impact of your paper to people it’s meant for such as researchers within similar fields, students seeking education in your field, general practitioners, the public, and so on. While it’s important to choose a journal with a target audience that fits your paper, it is equally important to ensure that the journal selected has a high volume of readers. 

• Scope of the journal:

Matching your paper with the scope of the journal is another aspect of the process one can’t miss. For example, a scientific journal publication will not serve an author in humanities. Hence, it is important to match the topics, themes, domains, etc. that a journal publishes about and make sure your research fits in.

• The business model of the journal: 

Authors must also make a choice between the traditional publishing route or the open-access journal way of publishing. While the traditional subscription-based models have been widely accepted, open-access journals bring a plethora of possibilities for researchers. As opposed to traditional publishing, open access allows authors to retain the copyright of their papers while enabling fellow researchers to reuse and adapt the published material.

• Speed and affordability of publishing:

Another important question authors often ask before publishing is how to publish a journal article quickly and at limited expenses. To overcome this, authors need to do their due diligence in finding out the average time and cost it takes to publish in a certain journal. Based on the speed and price points, the decision to publish in a journal becomes easier. 

Crafting a Compelling Manuscript:

For authors to easily comprehend how to write a paper for publication, we have broken down the entire process of writing a riveting manuscript. Here are the must-follow steps that can help researchers come up with quality pieces:

• Understand the essential structure of a research paper: 

To publish a research paper with success, authors must know the nomenclature and structure of writing. Authors must divide their papers effectively into the parts Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. It’s important to pay equal attention to each section of the paper in order to maintain cohesiveness and a natural flow. 

• Keep the writing clear and concise: 

While your research paper needs to be a certain size, authors must remember to keep their papers short, easy to read, simple to comprehend, and straightforward. Paper publishing journals can be smart to catch deviations and filler content in papers, discarding the submission.

• Fully familiarize yourself with referencing styles and required formatting:

As mentioned above, different journals follow different formatting and referencing styles. It is mandatory for authors to incorporate those guidelines into their papers. Only by adhering to these guidelines and requirements can authors expect to have a positive response to their manuscripts.

Submission and Peer Review:

Different paper publishing journals have different number of steps leading up to publishing a manuscript. The common submission process, however, comprises the following steps:

• Approval for peer review post-submission
• Open for editing after a certain number of peer reviews 
• Resubmission and revaluation of updated draft
• Copyediting and final publishing by the author from a platform-specific dashboard

To publish a research paper successfully, authors must pay careful attention to the peer review stage and the consequent editing requirements. During peer review, industry peers are called upon to authenticate and check the manuscript for quality. Based on their comments and observations, the author is expected to make amendments to the text and provide justifications wherever necessary.

While dealing with a peer-reviewed manuscript, authors need to take certain critical factors into consideration. Authors usually receive a letter with comments left by peer reviewers that need correction. Addressing these changes and suggestions diligently is paramount. Here are some of the most useful tips for authors to revise their manuscripts:

• Always thank the peer reviewers for their valuable comments in your response letter.
• Keeping the response letter polite and professional is vital.
• Make sure you address every point that was raised by the reviewers.
• Find out the exact deadline as submission deadlines vary depending on various factors.
• Inform the editor beforehand if you think that you can’t make the resubmission within the deadline.
• Find out if the editor needs two copies of the revised manuscript; one with the changes highlighted and another clean copy.
• For points raised that you do not agree with, share your rebuttal in a scientific and objective manner, keeping the language respectful.

While there is a lot of work that goes into revising a manuscript, these commonly applied steps will surely help you craft your second draft with complete clarity and accuracy.

Publication and Beyond:

Paper publishing journals assign peer reviewers and often provide the option to authors to refer a certain number of reviewers. Based on the content and initial evaluation, articles end up in various categories that may be labeled differently on different platforms. The articles that do not end up as Desk Rejected, Deferred for Revision, or Blocked are approved for peer review. The peer review process is a robust way of ensuring that submissions are high in quality. 

Once articles are reviewed and resubmitted by the authors after required editing, they are sent for Editor Approval. This is where an editorial member determines the suitability of the submission the journal. Editors also ensure that the reviewers’ comments have been addressed. Even at this stage illegitimacy of the paper, incorrect submission, or failure to address reviewers’ comments may lead papers to be deferred for publication or rejected. Once the editors are satisfied with the resubmission, authors can go ahead and publish a research paper.

The next step is copyediting for approved articles. This is where minor spelling, punctuation, grammar errors, etc. are corrected. Once the paper is edited in this stage, it is ready to be published. Authors are notified of the final approval of the paper followed by which they are allowed to hit the publish button.

It is equally important as how to write a research paper for publication that authors evaluate their publishing options. They must make a choice between traditional and open-access publishing. Open-access publishing, of late, has become a common means for authors and universities to publish research papers as it empowers authors with a lot more flexibility and freedom than traditional publishing.

In terms of affordability, open-access publishing clearly trumps its counterparts. Speed of publishing is another aspect that lends weight to open-access publishing. Authors' ability to retain the copyright of their papers is also a factor that tips the scale toward open-access publishing’s direction. Authors must choose the right platform based on its scope, domain, and all of these other factors combined.

After successfully publishing a paper, it is time to promote the research. To stop all the hard work behind the paper from going to waste, authors must pay extra attention to amplifying their work among new audiences. They may do this on their own leveraging communities, professional networks, social media, and more. Some publications also offer paid marketing for selected papers.

Conclusion:

As we have seen, whether it is scientific journal publication or publishing in any other domain, the steps that need to be taken are more or less the same across platforms. Starting with writing a well-crafted paper to select the publication, signing up as an author, submitting the first draft, clearing for peer review, resubmission after correcting required post-peer review, reevaluation by editor, and copyediting, there are several steps that come into the picture to publish a research paper for the first time.

We advise authors to follow the steps and tips we have curated for them in order to gain success in their first-ever attempt to publish a research paper. We’re sure that with care, diligence, and sincerity, students and scholars can go through the publishing process with flying colors.