How to write papers that get published

Writing a journal article can feel overwhelming. Especially when you consider it is actually many distinct challenges fused into one task: writing.

Suggested workflow

For writing & publishing a scientific IMRaD journal article

Background & theory on scientific writing:

1. Know the Product
2. Two types of writing
3. Writing is not linear

Preparing the project:

3. Assembling your writing team
4. Choosing a journal → to establish scope/ambition level of the paper

Building the knowledge:

5. Capturing research decisions → produces raw materials for introduction and methods
6. Interpreting the findings → produces well-reasoned conclusions for discussion
   1. Calibrating research questions
   2. Supporting with evidence
   3. Supporting with reasoning

Writing the paper:

7. Structuring your ideas → organises content of the paper into IMRaD structure
8. Writing the final elements → produces study contributions, key messages, implications, abstract
9. Editing and polishing → prepare submission-ready manuscript

Submitting and publishing the paper:

10. Submitting a paper → prepare cover letters and other submission materials
11. Review status & workflow
12. Responding to reviewers → write rebuttal
13. Acceptance worfklow

Tip

The information in this hub is skewed towards question-driven IMRaD papers. See also Potential biases.