How Do I Get My Thesis Published?

The professional culmination of conducting a thesis is to get it published in a leading journal in your field.  Making this final step to publication, however, often proves too much for most students and the couple of lonely copies of their thesis collect dust on the library shelves forever onwards.  Don't let this happen to you!  Start planning early for possible thesis publication, so you can get a head start and are more likely to follow it through.  Basically, the steps involved are:

1. Consult with your supervisor.  As the thesis is primarily the students' work, the student should be the first author on the article and the supervisor(s) are subsequent authors.  Discuss possible journals with your supervisor.  It is recommended that you have a list of about 4 journals, in order of priority, that you would to have your work published in.

2. Author guidelines.  Get hold of the journals' guidelines for authors.  Usually this is available via the web.  Check to see whether any of the journals are planning a special issue which is related to your topic.  Go to the library and look over recent issues of the journal to get a feel for the length and style of articles the journal is publishing.  It is critical to get the right 'feel' of the journal to help guide your writing and formatting.

3. What is your main point?  Look over your thesis and try to work out the main point that your thesis makes, what parts of the thesis are essential in making that point, and which parts can be left aside.  An article is a much tighter, more focused version of the thesis and it does not necessarily have to summarise the whole thesis.  But it does need to have a clear question which is succintly, even elegantly, addressed.  It is strongly recommended that at this point you have a planning meeting with your coauthors to decide the direction of the article.  You may consider using concept-mapping in this planning phase.

4. First draft.  Have a go at a first draft, based on rewriting the thesis.  You will need to chop out a lot of material, e.g., a lot of appendices, summarize all sections, and so on.  Then work to weave the flow together.  When you have a first draft, take this to the second author and ask them to read over and make comments and changes.

5. Redrafting. The more redrafting the better.  It is always tempting to send off an article before it is really ready.  Avoid this temptation by always doing just one more draft before sending it off - it might make the difference between acceptance and rejection.  In redrafting, pay very close attention to correct APA formatting for journal article submissions.

6. Cover letter.  Draft a cover letter to the journal editor to go with your article - this is an important component and is kind of like putting a suit on for an interview.  A well-written cover letter can make a significant difference to how the article will be received.  Then send it off!

7. Publication. The journal editor should acknowledge receipt of your article.  There will be a long period of usually between 6 weeks and 6 months until you will news of your articles, whilst it is reviewed.  The acceptance rate of articles submitted to outdoor education journals is approximately 30%-50%, which is quite high by academic journal standards.  In other words, there is a good chance of getting your article accepted.  It is extremely rare, however, that an article is accepted without need for some changes.  If your article is rejected, read the feedback carefully, make appropriate changes and send the article off to the #2 journal on your hit list!

8. Resubmission. Having had your article provisionally accepted by a journal, it is now "in-press".  Carefully go through the reviewers' comments and make appropriate changes.  This should be done in consultation with your co-authors.  Write a letter to the journal editor summarizing how you addressed or responded to each of the reviewers' comments.  This new version may be accepted by the journal editor or be sent out for review again and you may receive further feedback for minor changes.

10. Proofs.  When the article has been typeset for publication, you should receive a penultimate copy from the editor.  You need to carefully examine the proof for any small errors and inform the editor.

11. Publication Day!   Eventually, your article will appear in print!  Authors will usually receive complimentary copies of the journal.  Celebrate - go for a drink with your co-authors!  Announce the publication of your article on professional listservs.  Try to get hold of an electronic version of the article from the journal editor and get this hosted on a website, such as on the Outdoor Education Research & Evaluation Center.