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Research Starter - McNair Scholars: Finding Resources

This guide was created to help McNair scholars advance towards their goal of graduate education.

Citation Help

Research Help

Want to be published?

You may ask yourself, “Why would I care about being published?”  Here are just a few of the positive reasons to be published:

  1. Being published helps improve your CV/Resume.
  2. Being published may provide greater opportunities to get into graduate school.
  3. Being published means greater recognition of your work and can help you advance further, faster.

Where to start?

Become part of the conversation.

Being published is how academics become part of the conversation and add their voice to the body of knowledge. Getting to know prominent and noteworthy voices in your field is important to becoming part of the conversation. One way to accomplish this is to stay in tune with who is publishing in your field of study.
It’s a good idea to selectively follow authors that regularly publish on topics of interest to you and your research, especially if you find that you frequently quote or cite those authors. Prior to the completion of your paper that you wish to publish, setup a free account on researchgate.net. Many of the authors that you cite and/or reference can be found active on this site.

What do I need to know about the publishing process?

Before you choose where to publish your work, visit some potential publications and make sure that your research fits with the mission and goal of the organization. Choose publishers that publish other research that is pertinent to your subject discipline. View some samples of their published papers to see what the average length is. Viewing samples also provides you with an idea of what formatting and layout will be required.
It is very important that you thoroughly read through the publishers expectations when visiting a potential publisher's site. Here are some important things to consider when you visit a potential publisher's website. Carefully read all submission guidelines and answer these questions:
  1. Who do I contact for submissions?
  2. What citation and formatting style is required for the submission (MLA, APA, Chicago, or another discipline style)?
  3. Does the journal have their own formatting style that should be followed? For example, the “American Journal of Undergraduate Research” provides a specific template for their submissions.
  4. What file format is required, Word, LaTeX, PDF, or other?
  5. Is there a rule for how images are to be submitted to the organization?
  6. Are you allowed to submit your paper to multiple publishers at the same time?  Or do they require that you only submit to their organization?
  7. In-general, what are the policies for submitting for publication?

Where can I get published?