Conclusions and reflection
Writing for publication
Why write for publication?
Research is often an individual or small group activity, so communicating your findings and discussing your research widely is an important part of the research activity. It is unlikely to be very useful if it is kept a close secret! There are also a number of other reasons why a researcher may wish to write for publication. These include:
- Personal achievement
- To contribute to a particular debate or the body of knowledge within a discipline
- To build personal profile and strengthen CV
- Career advancement
- To develop writing and communication skills
- It is an expectation of the post or position currently held, or in order to secure tenure in a post
- To clarify thinking and revisit ideas
- Income generation
- Enjoyment and intellectual challenge
Whatever your motivation for writing, these learning materials will help you to choose a topic, develop a broad plan and select a target journal for your paper. They also offer pratical advice for paper submission and how to deal with reviewers' comments, along with a useful differentiation between writing for publication and writing a thesis or dissertation. There are also a few words about writing and editing a book.
Author: John W Albarran, with contributions from Dr Liz Falconer, University of the West of England.
Further reading
Glossary