Get Published! Preparing Your Research for Publication

Overview

This course helps postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career scholars speed up the process of successfully publishing in an academic journal or other scholarly publication. You’ll review, revise, edit and prepare an existing manuscript for submission to an appropriate journal or other publication venue in your field.

Each course offering is limited to 16 participants. A small class size allows for detailed and customised feedback from a research-active scholar in science communication and academic writing.

To apply, you need to submit a draft manuscript of 5,000 to 8,000 words.

Who this course is for

Postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and early career scholars in all disciplines, including the sciences, social sciences, humanities, business, and arts.

Learning outcomes

• Receive customised feedback on your draft manuscript.
• Break down the writing process into actionable steps that progress towards publication.
• Form a supportive community of writers with your colleagues.
• Dialogue with current academic journal editors and reviewers.
• Examine feedback from reviewers and devise strategies to respond to it.
• Revise your draft manuscript substantially for a specific publication venue.
• Create and start to execute a plan for publishing your manuscript.

Course content and structure

Duration

You can take this course over six or 12 weeks. The six-week version covers the exact same content as the 12-week version, but moves at twice the pace.

The six-week version is ideal for participants who already have a solid draft manuscript and a strong command of written English.

The 12-week version is ideal for participants who are juggling many commitments and require more time to do their best writing.

Online learning

Due to the complexities of working with global researchers and their different schedules, the online offering of this course is fully asynchronous, meaning there are no synchronous video meetings. All teaching will occur through:

• pre-recorded educational videos
• weekly announcements
• regular dialogue in online forums
• writing exercises
• detailed feedback on your draft.

These activities give you a variety of ways to engage with the course materials, instructor, and fellow participants in your own time. Some past participants have also scheduled their own local weekly meetings to work through the course materials together.

Library access

Participation in the course does not include access to the Massey University Library system, unless you already have access through other means (such as being enrolled in a Massey qualification).

Learn more about library access

Grammar

The instructors will address some issues of grammar, usage, and mechanics in their customised feedback on drafts. But grammar is not the primary reason most research is rejected or accepted for publication. As such, this is not an English grammar course. Instead, this course teaches an essential set of academic writing and science communication skills that you can apply to your current and future research writing projects.

Assessments

There are no formal assessments for this course. Instead, you’ll complete weekly writing exercises with your draft manuscript, including revising, editing and peer reviewing.

Meet your facilitator

Registrations

Participants with a suitable draft will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

After you submit the application form, you will receive an email to direct you where to submit your draft manuscript (5,000-8,000 words).

After your draft has been received and reviewed by the instructor, you will be notified if you’ve been accepted into the course. Payment will be required to reserve your spot after you’ve been accepted.

Please note: Although many participants in this course achieve their publication goals, participation in this course does not guarantee successful publication.