Publish or perish is a timeless creed for academic institutions. Wouldn’t it be great to know HOW to get published…and more often? Below are 7 secrets to do just that, taken from my book, Publish Don’t Perish, The Top Secrets to Get Published.
The book discusses these points in much more detail, and includes over 175+ tips to help demystify the world of academic publishing, aiding academics to boost their publication rates and obtain tenure track. This also helps institutions receive and keep valuable accreditations. (Online and live presentations based on the book also available.)
- Don’t give editors a reason to reject you. This is a foundational tip. Editors and reviewers are looking for specific reasons to reject your work, not accept it. One of the many reasons for rejection is a generic (not specific) introduction letter. Also, if you know how to leverage rejection into a learning experience, you can create an inspirational attitude towards publishing and be persistent.
- School requirements. Know your school or university’s specific publishing requirements and priority for tenure and promotion. Focus on meeting that level. Don’t fool yourself into thinking anything other than these requirements will get you tenure and promotions. If you can’t meet the publication requirements, leave before you are denied tenure for another school where you could meet the requirements.
- Priority scheduling. Assess your publishing priority and time for publishing. Are you giving the same priority to publishing as your school? Schedule publishing time and treat it like a scheduled class– even in a busy schedule.
- Selecting topics and publication sources. Discover the places and people to partner with for coauthoring articles. Use section limitations and further research to find articles, and follow the reference chain. Check author guidelines carefully in selecting the right journals before writing the article to match their style and requirements. Select between refereed and non-refereed sources with discernment.
- Matching publication sources. Present your work as a regular reader of the target journal(s), citing editors and reviewers of the journal(s). Match the exact format of journals’ current articles, and write a strong, personalized cover letter discussing your content matched to the mission of the journal(s) and readers.
- Multiplying publications. Obtain mentors and coauthors at conferences and have a proposal reviewed for research. Obtain student assistance with teaching and publishing, and having work in all five stages of the publishing process. Progress your article from a regional to national conference, and then to a journal.
- Empirical research. Effectively select the title and key words of articles and write the abstract that will get cited in other sources. Reviewing the important parts of the research paper is also vital: Introduction (answer the “So What?” question), Literature Review, Effective Hypotheses, Methods, Results, and Discussion Sections.
About:
Dr. Robert Lussier’s book Publish Don’t Perish, The Top Secrets to Get Published , includes 175 + secrets designed to accept – not reject – your work. Dr. Lussier has been the Publish Don’t Perish expert for more than 20 years based on his bestselling books and being a prolific author of 440+ publications including ET&P, JSBM, FBR, JSBED, JME, JSBS, and several other journals.
Over one million people globally have used his 12 publication, entrepreneur, business leadership and team building books, earning him an unsurpassed national and international reputation as an author and keynote speaker. He has helped hundreds of institutions and individuals in over 75 countries get published. Presentation highlights include numerous universities, professional associations and conferences including USASBE, NAMS, NEBAA, EAM and SBI (awarded highest honor of Small Business Institute® Fellow).