Category Archives: Advice About Publishing

For those of you who want to quote from books and would like to just copy and paste the section, {{ Don’t forget to cite where you got the quote from in your paper!!!!}} Google books now allows you to do this for books that are in the public domain. For more information check the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired campus blog at http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2395

How can I move from presentation to publication?

By using your presentation as an outline you can fill in the words of the presentation to give you a good start on an article. You will still need to do a literature search and add more substantial information but you have a start.

What is plagiarism and why do I need to cite references?

A simple definition of plagiarism is taking someone else’s ideas and using them as your own or, at the very least, not giving someone else credit for something they created. Most papers and many presentations discuss ideas or directly quote work from another author. These ideas belong to that person. You must give them credit for their work even if you are not quoting them directly. You do this by citing references (in the text or in footnotes) and adding a list of those references to the end of your work. You can use whatever citation style you choose or the publisher requires.

I only like to use journal articles in my paper because I don’t have enough time to read a whole book. Do I have to use books in my research?

Whether or not you should use books in your research depends on your topic but keep in mind that you don’t always have to read the whole book in order to get the information you need. For example, many edited books contain chapters on a variety of topics, some of which have nothing to do with what you are writing about. It is a good idea to read the preface and/or introduction and any chapters that apply to your topic but don’t feel compelled to read sections that don’t apply to you what you are researching.

My article just got rejected by a publisher, what to I do now?

Revise it based on any comments you received from reviewers and resubmit it to that journal or elsewhere. Many of us don’t get our articles accepted in the first place we send it. It is a good idea to think of back-up journals when you are considering where to send it out for the first review. If you did that you already have a list of other places to submit it. If you get a rejection back asking for a “rewrite and resubmit” then look at the comments and do what they ask. If you have questions about what the reviewers are saying contact the editor for more information.

If your article is rejected completely, take a few days to mourn (yes, this is your “child” that you put tons of time, energy and ideas into so you may feel a need to vent). Then sit down with the reviewer comments and consider them seriously. Sometimes you will decide that you did not submit it to the proper journal or that the reviewers totally misunderstood your research but most of the time the advice they give will make your paper stronger. Make any changes you feel are appropriate and send the article out to a new journal as soon as you can. It is very easy, especially for new authors, to not want to deal with the rejection, but revise your work and get it back out there!