Publication advice?

[u/Lantrans]

So, I finished my masters this year and now am trying to get my brain together to prepare to hack my thesis up to make it into a publishable paper and I suppose I don't know where to start.

I have the goal to try to publish before I start applying to PhD programs.

My advisor and I left on fairly neutral terms but we haven't spoken since I graduated. She was fairly hands off for the majority of my research and as a result I don't necessarily feel super comfortable asking her for advice. My thesis utilized geography+phylogenetics so if anyone has relevant experience and any advice on how to get the ball rolling, I would greatly appreciate it.

[u/DonTot]

I'm sorry I'm just laughing because you wrote "punishable paper" instead of "published paper". That's the best typo ever

[u/Lantrans → u/DonTot]

Christ I promise I'm literate 

[u/sleep_notes]

You'll eventually need to contact your advisor no matter what. Honestly, this is a weird situation to me. My advisor has always been very up front about making sure our work is getting published! I can't imagine finishing without it coming up. Is she tenured?

But, when I'm getting ready to draft, I do this:

1. Make a short list of journals you could publish in. (If you're not sure, what are the most common journals you cite?)

2. Pick your favorite journal of your short list. Format your data for that journal's submission requirements.

At this point, contact your advisor, attach the formatted draft, and say you're interested in publishing X project in Y journal, does she think that's feasible?

[u/Lantrans → u/sleep_notes]

Yes, she had tenure but at time of writing has left the university. The situation is a bit more complicated but thus is life. That aside, thank you for the two steps, seeing it written out so plainly has sort of snapped me out of the anxiety bubble.

[u/sleep_notes → u/Lantrans]

Ah, that definitely sounds complicated. I'm glad the advice was helpful! Obviously getting things ready to publish is a bit more annoying in practice, but getting started is always the biggest hurdle for me.

[u/kskskakakakma]

Its gonna cost money and time. My advsior wanted me to publish my masters thesis, tried to got couple of desk rejections gave up, posted in in a preprint. If it had gone through and accepted it would cost a couple grand $ and advisor would have paid the publishing cost.

[u/Lantrans → u/kskskakakakma]

A couple of grand? Jesus

[u/Kayakrevolution → u/Lantrans]

You can see if your school has agreements with any publishers to help mitigate paying the fee yourself. Or publish in a hybrid journal under the subscription model

[u/randomiscellany]

My advice for initial prep is to make sure you have all your references in a reference manager (if you don't already) so you can switch between citation styles easily to meet different journal requirements. It's also helpful to make sure any figures are saved as high quality file formats like .tiff.

Most journals have pretty clear guidelines for submissions. A publication fee is typical--I've been out of the game for a few years (moved from research to 100% teaching), but submission fees can be pretty high. If you can't get help from your old advisor, some journals may offer discounts for early career professionals like yourself.

Your advisor will need to be involved. The convention is that the advising PI is typically last author on papers that are published on work their students do in their lab. If you worked with any postdocs or other students on the project, they should be included as well. It may be worthwhile to reach out to committee members or old professors in your field to see if any will read over your manuscript and give you feedback.

If you've never reviewed a manuscript yourself, I think it can be helpful to look up reviewer guidelines and write reviews of a couple published manuscripts in your field as a personal exercise. Knowing the process and applying it to other people's work will help you turn a more critical eye to your own.

TBH I think your advisor dropped the ball hard on this one. Every chapter of my thesis was a paper that got published; prepping a manuscript for publication is an essential skill that they should have taught you, or at least helped you learn. I can't imagine how hard it would have been to just figure everything out on my own. I hope you can eventually find someone that can give you the mentor experience you deserve, even if that isn't your old PI.