HOW TO PUBLISH Nancy E. Hill, Ph.D. Professor Harvard Graduate School of Education Past Editorships: Associate Editor, Child Development Editorial Board of Journal of Family Psychology Editorial Board of Journal of Educational Psychology Editorial Board of Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies Journal

Deciding to Publish What is your message? What’s new that you are presenting? What are you adding to the literature?

Where to Publish? Finding the target Selecting a Journal Shoot high Go safer Target an audience Journal Prestige Web of Science Index Impact Factor Book chapters

Writing the manuscript Introduction Introductory paragraph Funnel Stick with your storyline Make sure to prepare reader for all analyses

Method Section No surprises All measures and sample characteristics should fall out of the introduction Remember nobody has perfect data don’t sink yourself

Discussion Section Opening paragraph Reiterate the main and most important findings Briefly contextualize their significance Systematically link the most important findings to the existing literature. What’s new from your analyses Discuss limitations but don’t kill your paper What’s the “take home” message

Results section Follow a plan Allow the analyses to “unfold” a story Tell a story Subheadings that foretell the story Start sections and paragraphs with main finding and then support with the statistics No Dense Statistics—explain what you are doing Pictures (e.g. tables/figures) are worth a thousand words!!

Prepare for submission Revising your intro to fit your findings and discussion Pre-review Selecting a journal Following format Sending it off Celebrating! Detaching yourself

Three months later…

I haven’t heard anything!!! ARRRGGHH!! What do I do???

Finally, the !! Bad News, Good News, and Reality

Bad news, Good news & Reality Bad news—a rejection! Don’t take it personally Read the reviews, set them aside and then read them again in a few days Good news—a revise/resubmit Read the reviews, set them aside and read them again in a few days. The reality—everything is revise/resubmit regardless of the outcome you will resubmit the paper somewhere

Dealing with the reviews Don’t be defensive!! Make the reviews work for you to improve the paper Organize the suggestions by section Look for common suggestions across reviewers Decide what’s “fixable” and what “explainable”

The Revision Attempt to deal with almost all of the issues Definitely deal with issues raised in the action editor’s cover letter. Definitely deal with issues raised by more than 1 reviewer Try to deal with remaining issues as you can Your honest assessment… Is the paper better?

Writing the cover letter Don’t wait to the last minute Think about what you say carefully Indicate how you carefully considered the reviewers suggestions Don’t be defensive

Revised Manuscripts Most journals only want to see 1 “major” revision. It will likely go to at least 1 of the same reviewers.

The Acceptance!!! Go Celebrate!! Copyright forms/assignment Copyedited manuscript and page proofs

Take home messages The end goal is to use publications to move your field forward. Publish your significant messages.