How to maximize your chances of getting published
By Angela Thody

If you are a university academic wanting to spread your research, you need to get your ideas published. I'm often asked if there's a foolproof way to ensure acceptance from those important academic journals like ISEA. There isn't, but you can maximise your chances by:

• Viewing getting published as a fun hobby. It will still take over all your spare time but you'll find it more bearable. Using every opportunity to practise writing. Send short articles to publications like this one and its web site; test yourself on electronic journals (currently less prestigious than those in print) before you launch a full-scale assault on the major journals. Grabbing at an offer made by a seasoned academic to publish jointly with you. Networking at conferences in your subject field. Look for journal editors amongst the delegates list. Find them and seek their advice. See if anyone is doing a special issue and needs your expertise. Publishing in your own country first and then branching out into journals elsewhere. Then aim at journals that include "International" in their title. Using your research overflow to produce more articles. Theses, research reports and case studies always produce more information than will fit into one article. Use the rest for further publications. Write separate articles on the literature or methodologies used. Obeying the contributors' instructions exactly. These help the over-worked and poorly paid editors to smooth the way for your article into print. You may want to exceed the words allowance but DON'T. You may not want to change all your citations to Chicago style but JUST DO IT. You can usually find the instructions online. Reading the journal you are targeting. That way you learn to write in the style most favoured by their readership.
• Making the changes suggested by the editor and/or reviewers. Your article is 97 percent sure to be returned for revisions even if it is accepted (figures from Educational Administration Quarterly, 2004). Even the most venerable academics have to make changes. SO MAKE THEM. Yes - you'll feel annoyed by the comments but you'll notice a distinct improvement in your article when you've made the changes.

AND SO - you're in print with your first article. Enjoy the triumph for just a few minutes but then get right on with the next article. Never stop writing. Oh - you got rejected? That was only because you submitted to an unsuitable journal so alter it to fit another journal and recycle. See you on the road.

Angela Thody's latest book is Writing and Presenting Research (London: Sage). She edited British Management in Education, and has published ten books and over 50 articles and chapters. Thody is Professor Emerita at the Centre for Education Research and Development at the University of Lincoln, England. Now semi-retired but still happy to travel the world lecturing. Visit her website at www.angelathody.com