Research publication
Introduction
The sixth generic quality involves communicating effectively as a researcher in a discipline or professional area and as a leading member of the community. Publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals provides the most authoritative and effective means of publicising your work and ideas as part of your discipline. Before getting to this point you will probably have obtained feedback, polished your ideas and established research contacts by giving talks in your school or centre, or at national or international conferences.
Method of review
Your article may be peer-reviewed by sending it to two anonymous referees who will assess it and determine its suitability for publication. This is known as 'blind peer-review' and is standard practice in scientific journals. Some journals have an established panel of reviewers who meet and consider articles submitted for publication. Whatever the method of peer-review, there is an assurance that articles have been checked to ensure that the ideas are original, methods appropriate, and conclusions justified.
Journals in your discipline
Your supervisor or other researchers in your school, institute or centre will be able to suggest journals in your discipline in which your research may be published. See also the Library databases of journal collections, most of which will have online information.
However there is no requirement for achieving publication, particularly not in a refereed journal. It is recognised that there are many factors that can prevent or delay actual publication. The higher degree by research student is required to work towards publication, especially from the second year of enrolment (equivalent full time).
UniSA resources
On campus workshops
Research Education Support Activities (RESA) offers on campus workshops relevant to research publication as part of the core series (all disciplines). Check the calendar for details of when these workshops are offered.
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Online workshops, courses and resources
Publishing index (RESA) provides links to online workshops, courses and resources.
Writing up the research design in a health sciences experimental or hypothesis testing report (Learning and Teaching Unit) is a resource for sciences, engineering and technology containing the following information: Materials and subjects; Variables and intervention; Rationale; Validity and reliability; Limitations; Example; Writing up; References.
Other
Authorship policy (Policy No RES-12.0): UniSA complies with the Australian
Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (replaces the NHMRC/AVCC
Statement and Guidelines on Research Practice).
Completion and retention of the
Statement of Authorship
and Location of data form
(RTF file) fulfils the requirements of
sections 2.3, 2.4, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6.
Other resources
Publishing papers (PhD Stages - University of Queensland)
Publication and dissemination of research findings (Part A) (PDF file, 829kb)(Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research) provides a comprehensive framework of minimum acceptable standards regarding publication.
Obtaining a PhD: Research and publishing (Re-envisioning the Ph.D, University of Washington Graduate School) offers strategies for researching and writing polished articles, such as How to write-up your research for publication (Australian National University), as well as some general sites useful for research.
Publish well and wisely: A brief guide for new scholars, Michael J Carley (Director, University of Akron Press Associate Professor of History) discusses basic principles, the book, articles, conference papers, book reviews and electronic publishing.
Further reading
Barrass, R, 2002, Scientists must write: a guide to better writing
for scientists, engineers and students, Second edition, Routledge,
New York. Available through the
Library.
Lindsay, D, 1995, A Guide to Scientific Writing, Longman
Cheshire, Melbourne. Available through the
Library.
McMillan, V E, 1997, Writing papers in the biological sciences,
Second edition, Bedford Books, Boston. Available through the
Library.
Thomas, S A, 2000,
How to write health science papers, dissertations
and theses, Churchill Livingstone, New York.
Day, Abby,
How to write publishable papers. Part 3: Seven days to a perfect
paper. (PDF file, 218kb)
Kenway, J, Gough, N & Hughes, M 1998, Publishing in refereed academic
journals: a pocket guide, Deakin Centre for Education and Change,
Geelong
Valiela, I, 2001, Doing science: design, analysis, and communication
of scientific research, Oxford University Press, New York (chs 5-6)
Zeiger, M, 2000, Essentials of writing biomedical research papers,
2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, New York