2. Overview
• Why publish?
• What type of paper?
• Where to publish?
• When to publish?
• Who should publish?
• How to publish?
3. Why do you publish ?
• If you do not publish, no-one knows what you have done
• Publications are a key component of your CV
• You get feedback on your work through publications
• Your supervisors will help you to get this piece of
research right
• Writing papers is a good basis for writing a thesis
• Mission of the university to share knowledge
• A group/department needs to publish
– get known
– obtain funding
– be successful in the research assessment
4. What paper could you write
• Literature reviews
– Require substantial conceptual work
• Problem descriptions
– descriptions of situation
– descriptions of identified problem
• Solution descriptions
– tools, methods, guidelines, processes
– discoveries, proves, etc.
• Details of research
• Summaries of research
• Position papers
– A proposed argument – usually experienced academics
5. Where do you publish ?
• Seminars (not reviewed)
– Useful quick feedback
• Workshops (sometimes not reviewed)
– built up confidence in small audience
• Conferences (reviewed)
– quick turn around
• Books/ Review articles
– Grab opportunity, often by invitation
• Academic Journals – Peer reviewed
– Rigorous substantial reviewing
6. When are you ready to publish ?
• This depends on where you want to publish
• You generally need a completed piece of work
– problem
– solution
– validation
• This is not the thesis, but a substantial part of it.
• The work needs to be contextualised, i.e. know where
you are going
8. Contribution
• The amount of publications per thesis vary
• The amount of papers vary by field
• Typical number
– one to two journal papers minimum
• Conference papers are stepping stones to journal
papers
9. Who should publish
• First author – the person who has done the work - you
• Supervisors as co-authors
– You get their attention
– They contribute by getting money for you and direct
your work
• Supervisor as first authors
– unusual, if it is mainly your work
– you might be invited to contribute to supervisor paper
• Corresponding author – the person that submits the
paper and communicates with the journal.
10. Authors
• All authors should agree on the arguments in the paper
• All authors are jointly responsible for the publication
• All authors should have read all of the manuscript and
agreed to it before submission
• All authors should be able to answer questions on the
paper if they are asked to do so – e.g. at a meeting.
11. Writing with other people
• Role of the student
– draft outline
– write draft
– suggest paper
• Role of supervisor
– suggest paper / outline core argument
– comment on paper
– use paper to teach you how to write
– edit paper
• If you co-author misunderstands you, you have not
written it clearly
12. Where: conferences versus journal
• Conferences
– quick feedback
– good way to meet researchers in the field
– good way to get overview of the topics in field
– pick up the language
– prestige varies with field
• Look at acceptance rate
• In particular in computer, conferences can be hard
to get into
– quite expensive
• Ca. £ 1000 in Europe
• Ca. £ 1500 in US
13. Journal
• Easier to access for readers
• Usually higher standards
• Rating / Impact factor of the journal gives you standing
• Usual more careful reviewing process
• Usually looked at over far longer periods of time
• Completed pieces of work
14. Expertise of supervisors
How much you supervisor knows about your topic and
where to publish depends greatly
-Positioning of the work in different communities
-What are they know for?
-What would you like to be know for
-How many students have they supervised
- New supervisors are very enthusiastic
- Expertise supervisors know the process
15. Finding the right place to publish
• Pick the community in which you want to be known
– The same as your supervisors give you introduction,
but it can be hard to step out of the shadow
– A different community might be a better match
• Identify journals and conferences in the area
– highest cited
– best place to meet people
– understand publishing culture of journal / conference
• Learn the who is who
– people who dominate your field
– methods that are used in particular journal / community
– don’t upset likely reviewers
16. How: Process of writing a paper
• Where: Identification of an opportunity
– i.e. conference, call, contribution
• Gap: Framing the paper in the context of other
literature. What is your contribution?
• Write an outline of the paper
• Talk to the your supervisors
• Write a draft
• Send of for comments in good time
• Rewrite the paper
• Send of for comments
• Handle submission process
17. Generic structure of a paper
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Literature review
• 3. Problem description
• 4. Contribution 1
• 5. Contribution 2
• 6. Validation
• 7. Implication / Discussion
• 8. Conclusions and further work
18. Targeting your paper
• Pick the right place
• Look at past papers from the conference journal
– variations in standard
– variation in degree of formality
– bias towards particular methods
• Use the right format from the beginning
• Stick to the word limit
– this determines were you can publish some work
• Remember it is harder to write a good short paper than a
good longer one
19. Does and don’ts
• Don’t submit an abstract before you have done the work
• Don’t decide to submit a paper a few days before a
deadline
• Don’t fight your supervisors over authorship
• Leave enough time. It always takes much longer than
you think
• Pick conferences with special issues
• Remember that submitting also takes time
20. The wonderful deadline
• Try to submit conference papers by a deadline
• You can always improve a paper
– let go and submit it on time
– you might be able to revise it later
• Special issues of journal are useful because they have
deadline
• A deadline forces you co-authors to respond in time
• Plan your own work ahead to a conference
• You usually can negotiate an extension, but ask in good
time
21. Publications and your thesis
• Use the publications to drive the thesis
– publish as you go along
• Use the thesis to drive the publications
– target publications that advance your thesis
• Try to publish chapters of your thesis to
– get feedback on the work
– get a close over a chapter
• Try to publish as you go along, you might not do it
afterwards
22. Title and Style
• Title
– send out clear signals
– describe what the paper is about
– provocative titles are picked up on
• Style: academic writing should clear
– clear
– unambiguous
– unpretentious
– as wordy as necessary and as brief as possible
23. Response from the journal
• Accept as is – never happens
• Accept with minor changes
– paper will most likely be taken
– recommendation can be anything from typos to
cutting half the paper
• Accept with major changes
– need to responded to in text and in rebuttal
– papers will be reviewed
– paper can still be rejected
– this can go through several rounds
• Reject
24. Response from the journal
• Many excellent papers are rejected – this is not an
affront to your dignity or intelligence.
• Referees take a deal of time to review your paper –
sometimes they get it wrong or fail to understand what
you have written, but mostly their points are valid.
• Wait 24 hours before firing off a reply to the journal.
• Consult all of your fellow authors.
• Do what is asked, if it is reasonable…………..
• Make point by point response when resubmitting.
