Advice on publishing

Faith

I've just finished a psychology degree and did a thesis for it, which got a 1.1. My supervisor was very keen for me to publish it, and we discussed it afterwards. The paper is about 10,000 words long + references. He suggested breaking it into several smaller papers. Unfortunately, since I've left college, he's been very difficult to get in touch with (he's notorious for not answering emails), and he's going on sabbatical after Christmas. Several people have advised me to go away and sort it out myself and just tack his name onto it. But I haven't the first clue about how to break it down! Has anyone any advice about how best to publish things without someone's help?

avalon68

I'd strongly advise against "tacking" someones name on without their permission. I would be furious if someone put my name on something that I didnt have time to review and approve. It would be highly unprofessional. Try calling instead of emailing and make a plan to publish it together, or get his permission to add his name.

djpbarry

I would agree with the above. Apart from anything else, trying to get your first paper published all by yourself is going to be quite a challenge - you really need input from a seasoned pro to do your work justice.

Faith

Thanks for the replies. I should clarify that it was a former PhD student of his who's a very successful professional now who advised me to just do it myself - that's what she ended up doing in the end.

He is a wonderful researcher and lecturer, but he's extremely vague and forgetful also, which makes him very difficult to pin down. I'll try getting on to him again.

Turbulent Bill

I'd make a big effort to get in contact with him, and give him due credit/input in the finished paper, but ultimately it's your work and your decision to publish. Many, many supervisors don't equate "very keen for me to publish" with putting in the effort to actually get something published. A postgrad with a paper or two under their belt will probably need minimal supervision/review input, but for a first-time author you'll need a lot of guidance.

A decent compromise (if he's unwilling/unable to help) is to pass the supervision on to a willing colleague, otherwise you might be stuck in limbo.

Ostrom

Why should his name appear? He supervised, but was he directly involved in the design/collection/analysis?

You should be able to identify the most relevant journals in your field - this is the place to start. Check their editorial and submission policies in one of the online editions and see if one of your planned papers might fit their remit.

There is absolutely nothing stopping you sending a draft paper to an editor on your own - I know conventions differ from discipline to discipline but I dont understand why you need his ok?

There are many other avenues beyond journals also that will get your work out there

itzme

I would be very careful listening to advice saying you should submit without the supervisors agreement or with anyone who says you should leave their name off the publication. This is not good advice.

There are a couple of things to be looking at here, the first that has been mentioned many times here is that it is extremely unlikely that you will be able to write a paper to journal standard on your own. It normally takes at least 3-4 drafts of a full paper from a PhD student for first submission. The former PhD student was in a very different position, for one they were their PhD student and you haven't said at what stage they submitted and "tacked" the name on, had the wrote previous papers? Were they at the end of their PhD? Also by placing their name on the paper you are saying that they are in agreement with everything in the paper, which you have no idea is true without their reviewing it.

The second thing to remember is that most supervisors would feel they have co-ownership of the research, not primary but co. Without good supervision I have never heard of an undergrad in any field getting a journal publication out of their final year thesis. The previous poster has asked if they were directly involved in the design/collection/analysis, if they supervised properly then the answer is most likely yes.

Also if you are publishing, I would assume that you are interested in a career in research. If this is true and you tack the name on, it is quite possible that you are going to annoy your supervisor and who will provide you with a reference for future research then?
If you take the previous posters advice and don't put the name on at all, you are potentially bombing your career. Let's say you do get the work published and that your supervisor doesn't write to the journal stating that the work was not done in isolation and asking for it to be removed or edited to have their name on it. Do you really think any future MSc or PhD supervisor will believe that an undergrad did publication quality work in isolation in a final year project? If you didn't acknowledge your supervisor in the past why would you do it in the future? It would not look good when applying for research roles.

On what to do next, assuming you haven't had any joy with contacting your supervisor yet your best bet is to go to isi web of knowledge and look at the journal citation reports for your field. Look at some papers from the top journals and identify the ones that are the best fit. Select the one that you prefer and send an email to your supervisor listing them, stating that if you don't hear from them that you are going to aim for the journal you've selected and that you are going to format the work from the thesis in the journal format and get back to them. Then download the format and get to work going through the process of writing a journal paper. Start off by listing the main purpose(s) of the work, then the goals of the work and then the target audience of the journal. Keep these in front of you at all times. Then go through your thesis removing the relevant sections and placing them in the structured journal template. Once you have done this, start getting to work re-writing everything with the listed purposes, goals and audience in mind. Once this is completed, you are ready to meet your supervisor. Email them with the paper and say that in a week you'll give them a call to arrange a meeting, and do that, phone them until you can organise a meeting.

djpbarry

Faith wrote: »

He suggested breaking it into several smaller papers.

I missed this earlier - I think it's incredibly ambitious to try and get "several" papers from an undergrad project. One would be an achievement (and gold dust on your CV).

Turbulent Bill

itzme wrote: »

On what to do next, assuming you haven't had any joy with contacting your supervisor...

TBH the supervisor sounds flaky, so I wouldn't put any up-front effort into distilling parts of the thesis into a paper before I knew where I stood regarding co-authorship, reviewing etc. It would take huge effort even to get a paper to draft stage, and that could be wasted if the supervisor is unavailable or uncooperative. I'd insist on having the authorship and review arrangements sorted before the supervisor goes on sabbatical, well before the writing starts.

BTW I fully agree about not tacking on someone's name, but equally they shouldn't hold up publication.

OP, this all sounds a bit negative but it's a great thing to have a paper published and I'd encourage you to go for it. However you need to be very careful how you manage the process.

Ostrom

Apologies op - i didn't realise this was an undergraduate thesis (missed the degree bit at the start). For a masters/phd with greater independence you may have had some latitude with submission, but given his likely level of involvement you do need to be careful.

Focalbhach

Faith,

First of all I'll say good on you for being willing to take it on by yourself - I know plenty of people who'd see the effort involved and think 'no thanks'. It's a good experience to go through if you're interested in getting into research.

That said, I'll echo djpbarry's opinion that several papers is overambitious/unrealistic. I would set your sights on distilling one good paper from your thesis. I know it's 10,000 words long at the moment, but a lot of them aren't going to be needed for a journal paper, even if they're appropriate in the context of a thesis. Your hardest task might be trimming the fat - be ruthless. If a section (or a line, or a word) doesn't add to the understanding of what you're trying to explain, then it doesn't belong there. Identify the core finding of your research and your intended journal, and re-write with that audience in mind.

I'll also strongly advise against submitting anyone's name as a co-author without their explicit approval. Anyone listed as an author should, theoretically, be able to talk about what's in the paper to some degree and should certainly be able to stand over anything contained within.

I would make a start on re-drafting, and then send a draft paper (as opposed to a thesis) to your supervisor and try to arrange a time to meet - or at the very least get some feedback via email. If, despite all your best efforts, you can get no feedback but you think it's ready to submit, I would think you have no option but to omit your supervisor from the list of authors (although I would let that be known in writing beforehand - e.g., say, diplomatically, that you'll submit on your own by [date far in the future] if no feedback is forthcoming). That way, at least, you can always point to the evidence that you tried to collaborate with your supervisor.

As I say, you can always make a start yourself. It'll be slow going at first, but it's really the only way to figure out the ins and outs of the process! Check out a few potential journals ('aims and scope', the type of papers previously published, etc.), and once you find one that you think is suitable check out their 'guidance for authors' section. Many journals also provide detailed style sheets or advice on how to prepare your manuscript for submission, which is really just a case of following instructions.

1) Distill a first draft paper from your thesis. Jettison all emotional attachment to the existing words!
2) Format the draft paper for your intended journal.
3) Send draft to supervisor for review. Let him/her know in advance that you'll be sending it and there's a better chance that they'll be able to take a look in reasonable time. It also gives them a chance to be more involved, if they like.

Good luck!

Gaspode

I would advise against putting someones name onto the publication without their consent, it's not good etiquette. Some journals require a signature from all authors and co-authors so that might be an issue too. Work on drafting the paper while you're trying to track this guy down. His input will be invaluable in ensuring you get a draft suitable for publication.

Faith

Thanks folks, I've been in touch with him and it's sorted.