From Research Paper to Manuscript

1. From Research Paper to Manuscript
Organization: Caribbean Journal of Psychology (CJP)
Facilitator & Author: Marina Ramkissoon, Co-Chief Editor, CJP
Event: UWI Mona Annual Psychology Conference
Date: March 6th, 2014
Time and Venue: 1.30 – 3 pm, FSS Conference Room

2. Introduction
•
•
•
•
•
Confidence
Thinking
Point of view
Integration with body of literature
Your legacy

3. Why publish?




Other people will cite your work
Newspapers may reference your work
You may present published work at conferences
You may make guest appearances on television based
on your published research
 You might get a book deal and become an expert in
your field after publishing prolifically in your field
 Promotions in academia are usually based on the
number of journal articles you have published, among
other things

4. Common burdens and fears about
the publication process






Mystery? – demystify
Long, never ending journey? – projectize
Lonely? – collaborate
Daunting, I can’t do it? – build confidence
It’s not perfect? – it never is
It’s too hard? – it is hard, but can be done

5. Assumptions for this workshop
 The audience is mostly interested in converting
quantitative empirical studies into manuscripts
 They have all done a significant piece of work at the
graduate level
 They’re interested in submitting to a peer-reviewed
psychology journal which follows the APA publication
manual’s guidelines
 Authors need to focus on the macro-structure first,
then the micro-structure, of the conversion process

6. Objectives of this workshop
1.Provide answers to typical questions about
the conversion process.
2.Provide guidelines, tips and steps in preparing
a manuscript for publication.
3.Demonstrate some steps in the conversion
process.

7. Exercise 1
Please introduce yourselves to the participants by answering
one or more of the following questions:
1. What do you hope to publish?
2. What have you published?
3. What help do you need? What do you need to know the
most?
4. How confident are you that you can produce a high-quality
manuscript?
5. What have you tried to publish and what feedback did you
receive?
6. Beyond today, what can CJP do to help you publish?

8. Questions to consistently ask
along the way
- Is my literature review adequate, current and relevant? If most of
the citations are 10 years and older, it’s a problem
- Is my introduction clear? Will people, after reading it, know exactly
what my study aims to do (purpose) and why (rationale)?
- Are my research questions and hypotheses clear and lead logically
from my literature?
- Is my sample described sufficiently? (see checklist)
- Is my methodology sound and adequately described? (see checklist)
- Are my measures described? (see checklist)
- Are my analyses appropriate and described sufficiently?

9. Questions to consistently ask along
the way
1. Am I contributing new information to the body of work in this field? How is my
work different from what is presented in the other papers?
2. Is my work sufficiently integrated with the past literature?
3. Was my research paper or thesis good to begin with? Is it worth publishing?
4. Is my methodology sound? Is my sample size appropriate for the analyses? Did I do
the right statistical tests and interpret the results correctly? Were my measures
reliable and valid enough so that the readers can have confidence in the results?
Were my procedures ethical? Can my procedures be replicated?
5. Did my review of the literature lead logically into my research
questions/hypotheses and methodology?
6. Have I drawn the best conclusions from my study?
7. Is my discussion based on actual results or something I’ve imagined to be true?

10. Checklists
•
•
•
•
•
Abstract
Literature/ introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion and conclusion

11. Worth publishing?
- Your work may be worth publishing if: No one has
explored the same purpose, research questions or
hypotheses you have, in the same way
- It is relevant
- The data are not too outdated such that the
phenomenon may have changed over time
- The methodology is sound and therefore replicable and
produces reliable results
- It raises questions about past research

12. Exercise 2
• STEP 1: selecting a journal
• STEP 2: looking at your results first
• STEP 3: cut and paste your research questions and
hypotheses
• STEP 4: cut and paste your current literature
• STEP 5: align literature with research questions/
hypotheses, methodology and results
• STEP 6: discussion, conclusion, abstract, title

13. Next steps?
• These 6 steps can be considered the macro-steps
in the conversion process. For the refinement of the
macro-structure you have created, you have to now
focus on:
- Copy-editing
- Proof-reading
• Those are the subject of another workshop!

14. THANK YOU!
• CONTACT CJP:
– marinaramkissoon@gmail.com
– Website:
http://ojs.mona.uwi.edu/index.php/cjpsy
– Facebook page:
– https://www.facebook.com/caribbeanjournalofps
ychology