In this instructional video, Dr. Steve Tippins, a veteran academic with over 35 years of experience and service on more than 300 dissertation committees, shares seven concrete strategies to help doctoral students and early‑career scholars successfully publish their first journal article. He draws on his roles as author, reviewer, and associate editor to outline a step‑by‑step approach: (1) repurpose the dissertation literature review as a publishable article; (2) choose research topics that are current and align with emerging methodologies; (3) align publication venues with personal career objectives, such as targeting R1 institutions; (4) identify suitable journals early in the writing process so the manuscript can be shaped to fit their scope and format; (5) familiarize yourself with each journal’s specific submission guidelines before drafting to avoid technical rejections; (6) respond thoroughly and respectfully to every reviewer comment, providing clear justifications even when you disagree; and (7) avoid overpromising in the abstract or introduction—ensure the paper delivers on its stated aims. Throughout, Tippins emphasizes practical, experience‑based advice to streamline the publication journey and reduce common setbacks.
Chapters
The goal of many academics and many doctoral students is to get published in academic journals. I'm going to share 7 tips on how to ease your way to getting published in academic journals. I'm Dr. Steve Tippins Ph.D. I've served as an academic for over 35 years and on over 300 dissertation committees. I've also served as a reviewer on journals and as an associate editor at a journal. So I've seen publishing from a lot of different sides., and I've published myself and been through this journey on my own dating back over 35 years to present. So the first thing I want to talk about is using your literature review. You've— you're doing a literature review for your dissertation, so use it to also help you come up with a publication. You know, I've seen a number of people actually publish their literature review as an article. You might have to tweak it a little bit, but you've already done all this work. You might as well get extra credit for it. Second thing, be topical with your research and with what you're submitting to journals. You don't want to do a study, submit it to a journal that people stopped doing 15 or 20 years ago. You will have wasted your time, and the journal will pretty quickly tell you to come back. So if there is a new methodology that's being used in journals, and/or a new approach that's being looked at. You want to be part of that wave in order to be accepted in journals. The third point is when you go to publish or submit to journals, you want to be submitting for you and your purposes. So you need to know what your goals are and what you want this publication to do for you. If you want to go teach at an R1 institution, well, you're going to need to be publishing at the level of journals that they like. If your goal to publish is something completely different, then you might need a different type of journal. So think about what you want and what you need and what's going to help you move forward in your life and your career. Fourth, it's good to think about journals as you're starting your paper. So match the paper with the journal or journals that this may be submitted to. If you write a paper and then start looking for journals, it's kind of trying to make it fit the journal, and it might not. But if you have the journal or journals in mind as you're writing the document and doing the research, it's going to be much easier to comply with what the journal needs. And anywhere during your dissertation process, if you're looking for support along the way, join our free dissertation help community by clicking the link in the description. This leads me to point number 5: journals have their own submission guidelines. So you're going to write your paper. Well, if you know the submission guidelines as you're going along, it's easy to have it set up in what that journal needs. And even if you don't know and you've written the paper, before you submit, make sure you're complying with what their submission guidelines are. And it could be as simple as, "We want all references single-spaced," and you might have had yours double-spaced. Well, if they're double-spaced, they might just send it back to you because you haven't met their guidelines. So know what their guidelines are, know what the rules are before you submit. It's going to help you get accepted much faster. Number 6: if you're in the journal submission process and you've gotten a review and gotten comments from reviewers, you want to make sure that you have responded to every single comment that reviewers make. If you don't, they're not going to be happy because they thought their comment was important. Now, even if you disagree with a comment, You still need to respond, and you can respond by saying something like, "I understand you're looking for this approach. However, I kept this other approach because..." And you get more chance to justify what you're doing. Or, "The approach that was suggested requires these underlying assumptions, and the data that we have here does not meet those assumptions. Therefore, This approach is more powerful. It gives you a chance to not engage in a conversation with the reviewer but to show the reviewer that you understand what they're asking and you have a rationale for moving forward with what you have. Don't overpromise and underdeliver. By that I mean, if you say something in the abstract or in the introduction of here's where the article's going or here's what's going to happen, make sure you get there. Make sure that you actually provide what you've said you're going to do. Because if you don't, they're going to see it. They're going to send it back to you. You're going to have to redo it. The first point: use the literature that you've put together as a basis for doing research. Second, be topical with your research. Provide research that journals are looking for today, not 20 years ago. Third, when you're publishing, do publishing that helps you move forward with your career and your goals. So target journals that support you in your quest. Fourth, match the paper that you're writing to journal or journals before you write the paper, not after it's done. Fifth, make sure that you respond to every comment from reviewers when you resubmit a journal article. 6. Don't overpromise at the beginning of your paper and underdeliver throughout the rest of the paper. And 7. Make sure you understand and follow all journal guidelines.
