In last month's issue, we tackled the topic of how to get your abstract accepted for a conference. This month, we'll be taking a look at how to prepare your manuscript for publication. Many of you have already published, and I implore you to offer aid to your fellow students. Help them to get published and to feel the thrill of seeing their names in print. Volunteer to be a reader. Critique their work.

Selecting the Journal
Presumably, you know that your work is important. You know this because your thorough literature review revealed a void in the research, and you have attempted to fill that gap through your work. Your review of the literature may have also revealed those journals most likely to publish your work.

Most successful writers will tell you that writing is all about finding your voice and making time to put pen to paper. The best advice I ever received from an editor was quite simple: "When writing, think audience, audience, audience." So, before you even begin work on your manuscript, you should try to identify three to five journals where you would most likely publish your manuscript.

Preparing the Manuscript
Try to find one recently published article with a study design that looks similar to yours. For instance, if you have performed a content analysis, look for one like yours. You can use that published article as a guide or template.

Do not be fearful about having others critique your work prior to submission. You should look for the most critical people you can find. The members of your committee should be asked for feedback, and you should ask whether or not they would like to be listed as authors on the paper. Discuss this with your advisor. Don't put anyone's name on the paper without his or her permission. If you need a little grammatical help with the paper, find someone and pay or barter for editorial services.

If you have presented your work at a conference, you should have received comments, which may aid you in your writing. Another method to help prepare you for the world of manuscript preparation is to volunteer as a reviewer for journals in your field. Often you'll see this opportunity mentioned at a conference or within the pages of recent journals.

Follow the manuscript preparation guidelines in exact detail. Do not go over the maximum pages or tables allowed. If you have questions about formatting, check with the managing editor or the editorial assistant.

Making Contact with the Editor
You should write a cover letter to the journal editor and attach it to your completed manuscript. The letter should be short and to the point. If you've presented the work at a conference, this is a good place to mention that. Basically, you should introduce yourself (in brief), discuss the topic and importance of the manuscript (in brief), and provide your contact information. Be certain your salutation contains the editor's properly spelled name and credentials.

You may, as the corresponding author, be asked to type your contact information on the title page of the manuscript.

Querying the Editor
If you've done a little for-profit writing (or reading about writing), you've discovered that you must query an editor prior to an unsolicited manuscript submission. This is not the case for academic journals. However, if your manuscript doesn't neatly fall into a category or you have questions, don't hesitate to contact the editor. Sometimes they'll give you a good idea and aid you in getting published.

What the Editor Does with the Manuscript
When the manuscript arrives, editors give it a “quick read.” If they believe it is inappropriate for the journal or very poorly done, they'll send it right back to you. If that happens, read any comments from the editor.

If you find any points valid, change your manuscript accordingly. Then, reformat the manuscript and send it to the next journal on your list. If you have had the good sense to use software such as EndNotes, you will find reformatting for a different stylebook quite a snap. Don't be discouraged by rejection. Keep resubmitting and reworking your manuscript. Eventually, you will be published.

If the editor sends your manuscript for review, you've a wait ahead of you. Reread the guidelines for submission or the letter from the editor to get an idea of how long it will take to get the manuscript back from review. Be patient. When your manuscript comes back, one of four things will happen: You will be rejected (see above for what to do), accepted with no revisions (extremely rare), accepted with minor revisions, or accepted with major revisions. These last two are called a "revise and rewrite."

A "revise and rewrite" is the norm in the academic journal world. You should resolve to work with the reviewers and the editor to compose a finished product for publication in this journal. Read through the changes they would like you to make. Try to categorize the revisions. For instance, some will be grammatical and formatting changes. Others may ask you to add some different literature to the background section of your paper. Still others will ask you to further explain your sampling design, your methodology, or your results.

You will sometimes find that two reviewers share a different belief than the third reviewer. This is not unusual. What I usually do is summarize all comments into sections and show how I have changed the manuscript to address them. Be polite and articulate, but don't feel that you have to make changes that you feel will harm your manuscript. Where appropriate, show the reviewers and the editor exactly how you conformed to their comments. For those of you who would like an example, please email me; I will send you a sample copy.

Return your revised manuscript, an explanation of changes, and a cover letter to the editor thanking him or her for considering your manuscript. Do this in a timely fashion. The editor and reviewer may come back and ask for further clarification. Make the changes or tell why you will not make the recommended changes, and send it back to the editor. (At this point, you can see the advantage of online submissions.) Hang in there. This is not an unusual process. Sometimes you may go back and forth a few times with the reviewers and the editors.

Finally, you'll have a letter of acceptance. When the page proofs come, look them over immediately and compare them to the agreed upon version of the manuscript. Any errors should be immediately reported to the individual who sends you the page proofs.

You'll await publishing for quite some time. You will receive a few complimentary copies of the journal. You may be asked if you would like to purchase reprints. These are usually glossy offprints of just your article. They look like they just came out of the journal. If you want these, they are nice, but expensive. If you think you'll be distributing these, fine. If you are the corresponding author, people may write to you and ask for a reprint; however, this isn't done much anymore given the Internet and PDF files. Still, they make pretty packets for job-hunting and nice little enclosures for relatives who wonder what you've been doing with your time.

Finally, remember that the best way to ensure that you will be published is to write.