How to get your article published

Introduction

Key terms: publishing skills, journal selection, dealing with peer reviews, using ORCID and the PURE repository, introductory course, relevant for students in any PhD phase

ECTS: 2
Number of sessions: 3
Hours per session: 4

This practical course is designed to guide PhD candidates through the process of preparing, submitting, and revising academic journal articles. You will learn how to identify suitable journals, tailor manuscripts to target audiences, navigate peer review, and respond to editorial feedback effectively. Emphasis is placed on writing with clarity, aligning with journal expectations, and developing strategies to increase the likelihood of acceptance of scholarly work by journals. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with the tools and confidence to publish successfully in your field.

Entry level and relevance

This is an introductory course. No prior knowledge is required.

It is designed for people who have no or limited experience with the publishing of academic articles. The course is also relevant, however, for PhDs who have publishing experience but want to strengthen their publishing strategy.

The course can be useful for researchers in all phases of their PhD trajectory.

Relations with other courses

This course offers a brief introducing to using ORCID and the Pure repository. Using identifiers and Pure will be discussed with further detail in the EGSH course Maximise your visibility as a researcher.
 

Sessions and preparations

Session 1: General introduction into academic publishing  and choosing a journal
This session starts with a general introduction into academic publishing. Questions that will be addressed during this introductory session are for example: Why write and publish in academic journals? How do I choose a journal to publish in? Through interactive assignments you work towards creating a shortlist of suitable journals for your doctoral research. 
Preparations: None
 

Session 2: The publication process
This session will focus on how publication process looks like, from preparing the manuscript to submission, submission and the review process. Through interactive assignments you practice writing a convincing cover letter. You also discover the main reasons for rejection and how to reduce the likelihood of rejection. Finally, we discuss the role of AI in the publication process.
Preparations: Complete a preparatory assignment.
 

Session 3: Writing a convincing response letter & after publication 
The first part of this session will focus on revising and resubmitting your manuscript. Through interactive assignments you practice writing a convincing response letter to the journal editor and reviewers. This second part of this session will be hosted by the EUR University library. Questions that will be addressed are: What are Persistent Identifiers (PID), and how to use them in the publication process? What is the Pure Repository and how to use it? 
Preparations: Read the shared response letters, including manuscripts and reviews.