Just Publish!

Do you want to write, be an author, or publish? Well, here’s my advice…but first, some history.

I published academic journals several times as a graduate student and as a postdoctoral fellow and, even after transitioning out of research a little over four years ago, I have continued to publish. Over the last four years, I have published a few research commentaries, op-ed type articles, and letters to the editor. I also just published my MBA capstone work in PLOS ONE (you can read the paper here), and I am interested in independently publishing, so I just published a very short eBook entitled “Quitting: The Solution to Regaining Control and Happiness.” 

A few of my current goals are to work with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and PhDs outside of the research arena, and to write/edit and publish career advice-related books, so “Quitting” is mostly an experiment on how to navigate the independent publishing process. I say all of these to support my claim that I have a fair amount of publishing experience. 

I was recently asked to give someone advice on how I have navigated academic publishing (i.e., preparing and submitting articles, hearing back from reviewers, and submitting revisions). I gave some detailed advice, and the Web also offers a wide range of resources on this subject, including this recent piece on tips about writing for academic journals.  

After some time, since I originally fielded this question, I’ve had more time to reflect on it. Now, I consider the question mostly as an inquiry on the mechanics of navigating the publishing process, and not an inquiry on the actual writing of a document. With that in mind, I believe that some of my advice on this topic can be considered worthwhile to a broader audience, so I offer it here. 

Navigating the publishing landscape can be very varied depending on, at the very least, the following: 1) your discipline (e.g., social sciences or humanities versus life sciences); 2) your goals (e.g., publishing a book versus a journal article, etc.), and 3) your resources (eg, having co-authors, editors, the cash to publish and market your material depending on your goals, etc.). As such, I believe there is no “one size fits all” advice on how to publish. But, if you breakdown the basic question of how to publish into its simplest form, I believe that very simple advice emerges. 

My advice on publishing: stop trying to learn the details of how to publish and just publish. My thought process on this is that you will learn more by successfully publishing than you will ever learn by merely sitting on the sidelines reading about how to publish. Again, the publishing process has been very varied each time I’ve published, and so I have approached each publishing opportunity with resilience, persistence, and with no fear of failing. I have learned nuances of each publisher and each type of publication only by engaging in the publishing process and not by reading extensive “how-to” reference material.  I have “lived and learned” the publication process.

The publication process is part strategy, part skill, part luck, and part art form. I was lucky in that I began to learn how to publish by experience as a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow. Then, I learned a lot about the mechanics of publishing when I worked as a scientific editor/writer. In this position, my job was to help faculty navigate the publication process including writing/editing initial drafts, finalizing publications, submitting publications, helping revise the papers after getting reviewers’ comments, and resubmitting the papers. Yes, practice makes the process go smoother; HOWEVER, in the case of publishing, I don’t think practice makes perfect, because even very accomplished authors can occasionally struggle to get a piece published. 

So, since publishing can be varied depending on experience, reading “how-to” material will probably not be too helpful. Ultimately, you need the desire and willingness to write and to try to get published, and then you need to have the persistence and resilience to fully navigate the publication process all the way to seeing your work in print (or online, in today’s electronic/digital age). 

So, do you have a desire to publish? If so, just go for it and learn as you go. You will improve your publishing skills with time and experience. Don’t let fear of the unknown or fear of failure prevent you from realizing your writing and publishing dreams. 

And, P.S., if you are interested in independently publishing a career advice-related book and you would like some help, contact me. I’ve found that platforms such as those offered by Amazon and Smashwords have made independent publishing extraordinarily easy.

About the Author: Nathan has a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural biotechnology, a PhD in biochemistry, and an MBA with an operations management focus. He is the Assistant Director for Research for the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center. He is the founder of Integrative Academic Solutions, which aims to help individuals integrate multiple disciplines to achieve innovative job performance. He is also the founder/editor of The Daily PhD, a newspaper dedicated to graduate school issues and PhD career paths. Lastly, he is the founder/editor of What Are All The PhDs?, which is dedicated to putting a personal spin on highlighting all possible career paths for PhDs.