There are different reasons you might want to have your research published in a scientific or medical journal, but it’s not necessarily easy.
When your research is published, you’re framing yourself as a highly credible, authoritative source. You’re also putting yourself directly in front of your desired audience, and positioning yourself as a thought leader.
As a researcher, you want to convey the idea that you are contributing to the knowledge base within your industry or niche.
So how can you get your research published, and what should you know?
Tips for Getting Research Published:
When You’re Writing
When you’re writing for publication of research, you want to present everything in a logical progression. You want your writing to move through a story, as you present the facts.
You should try to avoid writing and editing your research at the same time, and make your argument very apparent. Don’t make readers dig for it.
You also want to be able to make sure that you could quickly sum up your paper in an easy-to-understand way, and that’s conveyed in the writing itself.
Your argument should more than likely be presented in the first line of your paper and you’re abstract.
You want to make sure that you’re not trying to fit too many ideas or concepts into one paper either. You want to be pretty specific with what your hook or main idea is.
Have a Colleague Go Over Your Work
If you’re writing a research paper, it can be a good idea to have someone who is in your industry and who understands it goes over it.
Then, you might also want to have someone who isn’t in your line of work go over it so that you can get that outside perspective, and once you do those things, you can start thinking about professional editing services.
Submitting Your Work
When you’re looking for journals where you can submit your work, you want to make sure your work is a good fit for the journal you submit to.
If you submit to a journal that’s not a good fit for your research, you’re just wasting your time.
You also need to pay attention to all the guidelines for submissions because, again, you’re wasting your time if you don’t.
When you’re writing a cover letter to go with your submission, don’t repeat the abstract. The cover letter is a chance for you to draw the reader in, rather than sending something repetitive of what else you’ve written.
In your cover letter, you want to include an outline of the bigger picture of what you want to convey.
What many people don’t realize is that one of the main reasons people get rejected when they submit to a journal is that they don’t follow the journal’s guidelines.
Pretty much every journal is going to have its own set of guidelines for submission.
These guidelines can dictate quite a bit of the detail as far as even your content—for example, there are the varying minimum and maximum article lengths you have to think about and formatting is a big issue too.
If you spend too much time submitting to too many journals, you either don’t meet these standards, or you’re caught up in trying to tailor your paper for each one.
Feedback
When you submit a paper, you’ll be provided with feedback and revision requests, if you’re accepted.
Once you resubmit, you’ll want to provide a document about the changes you’ve made and how you’ve incorporated them into your manuscript.
Before you respond to any feedback, make sure you give yourself time to look at it objectively and thoughtfully.
Choose a Great Editor
The idea of working with a professional editor was briefly touched on above, but it’s an important concept.
You want to find an editor who understands not just things like grammar and language, but also research papers in particular. They can help make sure that the entire focus of your paper is your research rather than potential errors.
An editor can look at clarity, which is critical with technical writing, as well as your word choice and organization.
They can also look at style guide consistency based on the requirements of the journal you’re submitting to.
Submitting research can be intimidating but also important for your business and your career. Don’t rush into haphazardly but instead be strategic in your submissions, as much as you are with the research itself.
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