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I'm in the process of writing my first paper as a PhD student and was wondering if I could get some general advice regarding the following:

  1. How many Journals to consider submitting a manuscript to and how much impact factor plays a role here. Some say aim high as possible.
  2. How much time should I spend actually writing the paper? Do I continue working on other projects at the same time as writing the paper?
  3. What other considerations should I keep in mind after submitting the manuscript? e.g. should I be writing up another manuscript for another journal-just in case?

I would be very grateful to hear about other people's experiences, etc with their first publication. Of course,I've read a lot of things on the internet and I've spoken to my supervisors too but I believe you can never learn too much. My project in the mathematical sciences with applications in biology/medicine.

Thanks.

EDIT: I found the following links very useful: one, two

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John_dydx
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    Have you asked your advisor these questions? – Nobody Jun 27 '15 at 07:13
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    May I suggest this is where your advisor should earn his/her pay? ;-) Previous experience publishing in the same field should prove invaluable. Previous experience should also be important for your point #2. I certainly would continue on other things while waiting, but precisely what is his purview. – ALAN WARD Jun 27 '15 at 07:15
  • @ ALAN WARD & @scaaahu, Thanks for your comments-I've edited my post slightly. I have spoken to my supervisors but I just want to hear from the perspective of a PhD student as well as from other experienced researchers out there. – John_dydx Jun 27 '15 at 07:18
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    What do you mean by "how many" journals to consider? – Tobias Kildetoft Jun 27 '15 at 08:28
  • @ Tobias Kildetoft-I meant how many journals would you consider submitting a manuscript to initially? Or do you just pick one and then submit your manuscript? – John_dydx Jun 27 '15 at 09:59
  • You are generally not allowed to submit it to more than one journal at a time (though this is field dependent) – Tobias Kildetoft Jun 27 '15 at 10:09
  • @ Tobias Kildetofy-Thanks for that-I'm aware you can only submit to one at a time. I suppose the question I'm asking is how do you decide which one to submit to? How do you narrow things down? Is there a systematic way of searching for journals related to one's topic? – John_dydx Jun 27 '15 at 10:12
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    Take a look at this question, for instance: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/18148/19607 – Kimball Jun 27 '15 at 10:55
  • @Kimball, thanks for much for that link-really helpful! I'll also link it with my post. – John_dydx Jun 27 '15 at 11:12
  • Dear student, you have your PhD advisor to sort this out. If he/she cannot help, seriously consider changing your advisor. – xmp125a Jun 21 '18 at 16:06

1 Answers1

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A Professor here.

  1. In general, yes, aim as high as possible. In practice, I do an educated guess as to which journal to send it to after seeing the final product/paper. If the student is capable and motivated, then I would work with the student to get the paper into the best journal.
  2. As much time as possible. Papers only get better over time. There are always avenues to improve it, technically or presentation wise. This is where your supervisor's experience is critical. Only he/she will be able to push your paper to the required standard and also steer you away from pitfalls.
  3. Many directions here. You could beef up the paper with new results, incorporate more assumptions or proof the general case :) Alternatively, you can work on a new problem or a related problem. Problems tend to reveal themselves as you dig deeper. All my students start on a new/related problem after they submit a paper. They might choose to go on a holiday first though.

All the best ...

Prof. Santa Claus
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