This document serves as a beginner's guide for researchers on how to get published, covering key topics such as the importance of publishing, evolving industry landscapes, and practical strategies for publishing journal articles and books. It emphasizes the necessity of publications for academic careers, the rise of open access, and methods to improve publishability. Additionally, it offers resources and advice for drafting proposals, selecting publishers, and understanding third-party rights.

1. A Beginners Guide to Getting
Published
A/Prof Lucy Montgomery
Centre for Culture and Technology
Curtin University

2. This Presentation
1. Why Publish?
2. A Changing Landscape
3. Open Access?
4. Practical Strategies for Getting Started
5. A Book?
6. A Journal Article?
7. Useful Resources

3. Why Publish?
• So that your research
can be read and built on
by other researchers;
• So that people beyond
the University can
benefit from the work
that you are doing;
• A core competency for
most academic careers.

4. Finding a Job…
• Whether you need to
publish depends on what
your career aspirations
are;
• Getting academic books
and journal articles
published is a skill;
• A publication track-record
will help you to stand out
in the search for an
academic job.

5. Why Do Universities Care So Much
About Publications?
• Publications as quality
certification.
• Ranking.
• Benchmarking.
• ERA: Excellence for
Research in Australia.
• National Competitive
Grant Schemes.
• “Publish or Perish”

6. A Changing Landscape
• Open Access – a possibility AND a
requirement.
• New tools for measuring the impact of
research. Journal Impact Factor. Citation
Metrics. Altmetrics.
• Changes in the publishing industry: Fewer
scholarly books being sold; Open Access
journals. Open Access books (eg. Palgrave
Open).

8. Deposit Your Work in Espace!
http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au/

9. Predatory Publishers…
• Not peer reviewed
(even if they claim to
be);
• Not recognised as a
‘publication’ by
Universities;
• Generally ask you to
pay.

11. How To Get Started?

12. Five Steps
1. Make a plan, get organised and ask for help;
2. Say ‘yes’ to opportunities to present your
work. Network!
3. Publish in post-graduate journals;
4. Take note of where the people you are citing
have published;
5. Say ‘yes’ to co-authoring.

13. Publishing Journal Articles?
• Make a list of five or six journals that might be
interested in your topic;
• Send the editor a brief email with a summary or
abstract of the article, perhaps saying why it
would suit the journal if it is not immediately
obvious that it will.
• If you get a polite ‘no thanks’, move to the next
journal on your list and do the same thing.
• Keep an eye out for Special Issue CFPs;

14. If you reach the end of the list and
still have not elicited any interest,
it’s time to take a long, hard look
at your article. You are either
trying the wrong journals, or it
probably is unpublishable.
• Rewrite it to be better suited to the journals you are
targeting; or
• Try a different group of journals, perhaps in another,
related field;
• or, Put your efforts into something more productive.

15. JOURNAL EXERCISE:
1. List the 10 most prestigious journals in your field.
2. Look at the Contents and see what they are publishing.
3. Look at their Editorial Boards. At least some of the names
should be familiar to you from your research - see if you
find clues about the board’s theoretical orientation, biases,
etc.
4. You can supplement this with a look at the statement of
the journal’s philosophy;
Doing this will give you a good feel for the particular interests
and angle or orientation of each journal, which will help you
when constructing your preliminary query list.

16. What To Do With Your PhD Research?
– Would it be best
published as a couple of
really good journal
articles?
– Is it time to do research
on something new,
instead?
– There is a section with
an interesting area
you’ve identified for
further research...

17. Turning Your Thesis Into a Book?

18. REMEMBER:
YOUR THESIS IS
NOT A BOOK!

19. Choosing A Publisher
• Look at books in your field – which ones are
the closest to what you want to produce?
• Think about price, visibility, production values
and format.
• Is there a series your book might fit into?
• Talk to publishers and series editors at
conferences and book fairs.

20. Framing a book project
• Make your thesis research 30-60% of the
book;
• Broaden it out;
• Look at what you need to add to make it
comprehensive;
• Think about global appeal. How can you
ensure that it will appeal to US researchers?
European students?

21. Things to Think About
• Word length – 70,000-100,000 words is usual
• Short books are cheaper to produce (and
therefore may be preferred by publishers –
especially for a first book).
• Do you need illustrations?
• How long will it take you to finish a draft?
• Be prepared to provide a sample chapter or
even a draft manuscript.

22. The Title is Important
• Think Google – what do you want people to
find when they search for your work?
• Start from key words to create main and sub-titles.

23. A Book Proposal
• Publishers provide guidelines for authors on their
website.
• Synopsis (brief, clear, convincing).
• Chapter Outline.
• Sample Chapters.
• Your credentials.
• Your publication track-record.
• Target market.
• Discussion of other books on the market and how
your book is different.

24. Make a Good Impression!
• Write your proposal in a way that suggests you
should be trusted to write a whole book
• Check your spelling
• Polish your sample chapters
• Get the name of the publisher right
• Don’t worry about fancy formatting. Keep it
clean and informative

25. Third Party Rights?
• Do you plan to use material that
belongs to someone else?
• Examples: Photographs;
Reproductions of paintings;
Drawings; or Diagrams?
• If the answer is ‘yes’ you will need
to ask the copyright owner for
permission!
• If permission can’t be obtained,
the publisher won’t be able to
publish the third party material.

26. Helpful Resources
• UQ Guide to Predatory and Vanity Publishers:
http://guides.library.uq.edu.au/vanitypublishi
ng
• Curtin’s Open Access Institutional Repository:
http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au/
• The Directory of Open Access Books:
http://www.doabooks.org/
• The Directory of Open Access Journals:
http://doaj.org/

27. Germano, W., From Dissertation to Book University of Chicago Press,
2005.
Harman, Eleanor, et al (eds) The thesis and the book : a guide for
first-time academic authors, University of Toronto Press, Toronto
2003. Robertson Library Level 6 808.02 THE
Jackson, L & Lenstrup, M., Getting Published; A Companion for the
Humanities and Social Sciences, NIAS Press, Denmark, 2009.
Luey Beth (ed), Revising your dissertation : advice from leading
editors, University of California Press, Berkeley c2008. Robertson
Library Level 6: 808.02 REV
Murray, R., Writing for Academic Journals, Open University Press,
2005.

28. Acknowledgements
• Pixabay: Images that are free to reuse;
• Professor Graham Seal: Australia-Asia Pacific
Institute, Curtin University;
• Julie Lunn: Humanities Research and Graduate
Studies, Curtin University;
• Emma Brennan: Editorial Director
and Senior Commissioning Editor, Manchester
University Press.