1) Come up with a game plan and stick to it.

What compels you to desire to be published in journals? What are you trying to accomplish? Are you writing for the purpose of research evaluation? Or to make a significant impact? Why do you write? Is it to have an impact or to have an impact factor? Do you wish to raise your profile in a certain field or field of study? Will this influence the publications in which you choose to submit your work? Have you considered the aspects that contribute to their impact?

Have you conducted study on the other researchers working in your field? If so, where can we find their most recent publications? Which discourse or group do you envision yourself becoming a part of? Some people write the paper first and then look for a "home" for it, but since everything in your article – content, focus, structure, and style – will be shaped for a specific journal, you can save yourself time by deciding on your target journal and working out how to write in a way that suits that journal. In other words, some people write the paper first and then look for a "home" for it.

What should I journal daily?

When you have a writing strategy, one of your responsibilities is to ensure that you have both external and internal drivers. Some examples of external drivers include earning points in a research evaluation or climbing the promotion ladder. An example of an internal driver is determining why it is important to you to write for academic journals. This will make it easier for you to keep up the motivation you'll need to create and publish throughout the course of a longer period of time. You need to be very clear about your motivations before you submit anything for publication because the time between submission and publication can be up to two years (although in other sectors it's considerably less).

2) Conduct content analysis on pieces published in relevant academic publications.

Take a look at a few of the publications in your field that you plan to focus on in the near future. Examine each of the abstracts that have appeared in the most recent few issues. Examine them, paying particular attention to the first and last sentences of each one. The justification for the study is (typically) presented in the first sentence, and a "addition to knowledge" is asserted in the very last sentence. The phrase "contribution," on the other hand, might not be there because that term is linked with the PhD. Which terms are meant to be used then? What exactly does this publication consider to be "new knowledge" at the present time? In what ways are you able to make a contribution that is comparable to the work that you have done? What are the two sentences that you plan to write to begin and end the abstract that you will submit to that journal?

Examine the article's various additional parts to determine how they are organized. What are the different parts that make up the argument? Underline all of the topic sentences, which are the sentences that come first in each paragraph, to illustrate the progression of the argument. Do you detect the beginnings of a taxonomy of different types of writing within this journal? Are you able to define the many kinds of paper and structures, as well as determine which one will serve your needs and your paper the best? Choose two different types of papers: one that is the type of work that you can use as a model for your own study, and one that you can cite in your paper, thereby joining the research discourse that is ongoing in that journal. Both types of papers should be selected.

3) Create an outline, and then start writing.

Develop you always do an outline before you write, or do you just leap in and start writing? In other words, what kind of writer are you? Or do you combine the two approaches? Because freewriting and outlining both have their merits, combining the two approaches is something that should be considered. However, you should make sure that your plan is really precise; you should describe the main sections and calibrate them with the journal that you are aiming for.

What kinds of headings are typically utilized when writing there? How lengthy is each of the portions, on average? You should establish word restrictions for each of your parts, sub-sections, and even sub-sub-sections, if necessary. This requires you to make a decision regarding the content that you want to include, which could take some time; therefore, input would be helpful at this stage.

When you sit down at your computer to write, do you primarily use writing to develop your ideas or do you mostly use writing to document your work? Are you creating the sections of your article utilizing the agenda that you created from your outline? Consider the following verbs to help you describe the objective of your writing task: to summarize, to overview, to criticise, to define, to introduce, to conclude, etc.

4) Obtain input throughout the entire process.

Discuss your concept for a paper with at least four or five individuals and ask for their opinion on the draft of the abstract you've written as soon as possible. They won't need more than a few minutes to read it and give their feedback on it. Before submitting your article to the journal, you should perform many rounds of changes on it.

5. Establish detailed writing objectives and intermediate targets

In order to make your writing goals more explicit, you must define the subject matter, verbs, and word counts for each part. This means that rather than setting a writing goal such as "I plan to have this article written by the end of the year," you should instead set a goal such as "My next writing goal is to summarize and critique twelve articles for the literature review section in 800 words on Tuesday between 9 am and 10. 30 pm." Some people believe that academic writing should not be so mechanical, yet doing so is a good method to force yourself to make decisions regarding the substance, sequence, and proportion of your piece.

6) Collaborate with other writers.

Writing is typically thought of as a lonely activity; nevertheless, communal writing, or writing in the presence of other people who are also writing, can be beneficial to the development of confidence, fluency, and attention. It can assist you in cultivating the habit of writing on a regular basis. When you do your academic writing in groups or at writing retreats, not only are you working on your own writing, but you are also developing the concentration that is necessary for regular, high-level academic writing. This is because you are unplugging from email, the internet, and any other devices that might distract you.

You will reach a point – ideally at predetermined intervals – where you will be able to do a great deal more if you simply concentrate on writing. Even though it may seem obvious, this is not something that is typically done. The majority of individuals are multitaskers, but this approach to writing regular journal articles isn't always going to be successful. Writing should take precedence over all other activities at some point; this should be done for a predetermined amount of time, such as ninety minutes; this is enough time to get something done on your paper, but it's not so much time that it's impossible to find the time to accomplish it.

7) Make sure you stretch before you start writing.

An effective initial warm up is to answer the question "What writing for publication have you done [or the closest thing to it], and what do you want to do in the long, medium, and short term?" by writing for five minutes, in sentences, while you are deciding what you want to write about. While you are doing this, an initial warm up that works is to write in sentences.

After you have started writing your piece, utilize a variation of this question as a warm-up exercise. What writing for this project have you done so far, and what do you want to do in the long term, in the medium term, and in the near term? A useful piece of advice is to finish each session of writing by providing yourself with a "writing instruction" that you may apply in the next session. For instance, you might say to yourself, "next Monday from 9 to 10 am, I will compose the conclusion section in 500 words."

As was previously mentioned, there cannot be any goals if there are not any numbers. Goals that are effective need to be detailed, and you need to keep track of how well you are doing in meeting those details. You will learn how to set more achievable goals by doing so.

8) Consider the comments made by the reviewers on your contribution.

Specifically, what is it that they want you to do? Determine whether they want you to add anything or remove something from the list. How much? Where? Create a list of the steps to be taken in the revision process. Include this in the report that you send to the journal when you resubmit your article, and be sure to clarify how you have responded to the suggestions that the reviewers provided. Even if your piece was turned down by a publication, it is still beneficial to review the feedback, determine the reason, and rewrite it for submission elsewhere.

The vast majority of feedback can help you enhance the quality of your paper and possibly the journal articles that you write, but at times it can appear to be too emotional, personal, or even vengeful. Some of it might even give the impression of being unprofessional. Discuss the feedback provided by reviewers and find out what others think about it. You might discover that other people, even prominent scholars, still suffer rejections and poor reviews; therefore, you should celebrate any non-rejection as a reason to rejoice. Make the necessary changes and re-submit the essay as soon as you can.

9) Keep your head down, have a thick skin, and be resilient.

These are traits that you might be able to cultivate with experience, or you might already possess them. It might be simpler to come up with them through conversation with other people who are also writing for journals.

10) Remember to take good care of yourself.

The competition to publish writing in academic publications is fierce. It is possible for it to be very distressing. Even just finding the time to write can be a source of anxiety. Because sitting for long periods of time can pose health hazards, you should make an effort to avoid sitting to write for more than an hour at a time. When it's all said and done, make a big deal out of the fact that your essay was accepted. Remind yourself that contributing to academic publications is the career path you want to pursue and that the work you produce will, in some way, make a difference.

These guidelines are from the third edition of Writing for Academic Journals. [Citation needed]