GradPSYCH - January 2012 - (Page 27)

students got less financial support from their parents to pay for college, compared with thinner students. • Pursue several projects at once. Since it can take a long time to get a study to publication, work on several projects at different stages of development simultaneously, Good suggests. For example, if you’re pursuing a longitudinal study requiring several years of data collection, also start a project using existing data or data that can gathered in a semester or two, she says. “There should always be some aspect of research that you could work on every day,” Good says. Working with reviewers After you’ve submitted a paper for publication, chances are you’ll get rejected, says Kazak. Of the 399 papers submitted to the Journal of Family Psychology last year, 76 percent were rejected, and none were accepted “as is,” Kaslow says. So, if you get a “revise and resubmit” response, consider yourself lucky — it’s more work on a project that you’ve already spent years on, but it’s also an opportunity to improve your work and, perhaps, get published. At this point, be sure to: • Address every comment. When you receive a revise-andresubmit letter, read it, but then step away for a day or two to collect your thoughts. Then, address all of the reviewers’ points, Kazak says. “If an editor asks you to make changes, make every effort to make them,” she says. Often, reviewers ask authors for additional details on a study’s methodology, Rogers says. If you get this request, make sure you provide enough details so the reader can evaluate whether your study design fits your research question and can be replicated by another scientist. Reviewers might also offer alternative explanations for your findings, she says. In this case, you may need to run additional experiments to rule out alternative explanations, or revise your conclusions. “You need to make sure that the conclusions are closely linked to the findings,” she says. • Develop a cover letter. Keep track of the changes you’ve made, and summarize them in a one-page cover letter. Consider including a longer document laying out, in detail, how you’ve addressed reviewers’ requests. • Pick your battles. Chances are you’ll disagree with some comments or revisions, but don’t nitpick every one, Roberts says. Only argue with the most egregious errors. For example, if a reviewer misunderstood a statistical technique you used, explain that politely and consider rewriting that section to be clearer. “Do it in a diplomatic way,” he says. • Practice persistence and patience. Sometimes, a paper is a dud. If you’ve submitted it to several journals and received outright rejections, it’s probably time to move on to a new project. But if you’re able to make the changes recommended by the reviewers, keep at it as long as your editor allows. “I’ll go back and forth as many times as needed if I feel the authors are making a conscientious effort and the paper is getting better each time,” Rogers says. If getting published isn’t reason enough to persevere, consider your collaborators and participants, says Paul Silvia, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and author of “How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Academic Writing” (2007). In addition to giving up their time to participate in your study, your participants often answered very personal questions or completed tedious tasks. You owe it to them, and to other scientists, to share your results, Silvia says. “Sharing your results with your peers through publication, this is really why we do it in the first place,” he says. n gradPSYCH • January 2012 • 27 Writing and submitting a paper Once you’ve gained some experience in helping your colleagues with their research, it’s time to try for your own publication. But don’t just cut and paste sections of your master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, says Rogers. Instead, pull out your strongest findings and use them as the basis for a much shorter paper. You may have to perform more analysis or even data collection to make a strong, new contribution to the research literature. “It’s all about being focused and selective so that you can tell a clear story about what your results show,” she says. • Pay attention to detail. Good research that’s written up poorly won’t make it into a journal’s pages, says Rogers. Avoid jargon and aim for concise writing, she says. Proofread and make sure your paper adheres to the journal’s submission standards — which often include following APA style. When Rogers receives a paper that doesn’t follow APA style, she writes the author a note explaining that the work won’t be considered until it’s reformatted. • Seek honest feedback. Let a few people whose judgment you trust critique your paper before you submit it, says Michael Roberts, PhD, a clinical child psychology professor at the University of Kansas and editor of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. Ask your adviser or another professor in your program to evaluate the content, and get a peer to check for grammar and style mistakes, Roberts says. If you can, pick a colleague who’s a particularly good writer, he adds. “Tell them, don’t be nice, be my friend and help me see where I can improve this,” Roberts says. • Pick the right journal. Read the mission statements of the journals within your field, and get familiar with the studies published in recent issues, says Anne Kazak, PhD, the editor of Health Psychology. Incoming editors of APA journals are profiled in APA’s Monitor on Psychology magazine and often describe what kind of research the editors are looking for. Search for those profiles online at www.apa.org/monitor, and tailor your work accordingly. “The fit is very important,” Kazak says. For researchers looking to publish in Health Psychology, for example, that means explaining the practical implications of your work. “Go beyond telling me what you found to providing valuable insights into the implications of your work, for practice, for future research and for policy,” she says.  http://www.apa.org/monitor

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GradPSYCH - January 2012

GradPSYCH - January 2012
Contents
Psychology grad school enrollment drops, despite record numbers of applicants
Students leave their iPods at home during ‘crunch time’
Media Picks
Chair’s Corner
Odd Jobs
Research Roundup
Hot careers: Video game design and development
Friends and co-workers
Time to bail?
Scaling Mount Publication
Need to heal thyself?
Staying connected
Matters to a Degree
Power up your PowerPoint
Dissertations vs. diapers
Searching for answers
Bulletin Board
Jobs, internships, postdocs and other opportunities
The Back Page

GradPSYCH - January 2012

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/apa/gradpsych_201203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/apa/gradpsych_201201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/apa/gradpsych_201111
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/apa/gradpsych_201109
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com