Professional & Academic Writing & Publishing for STEM Graduate Students & Faculty

This guide is designed to give an overview on the publishing and presenting of research in STEM, with graduate students and faculty in mind.  To the left, you'll see pages for specific publication categories. Examine these for specifics targeting those formats. This page will give some general tools and resources.

If you know a specific journal, book publisher, conference, etc. where you wish to submit, they will list specific requirements, such as format, and citation style. It is ideal to do this early so you can follow these elements as you write. Visit their web site for details.

If you have questions, please contact me.

Do you need help with software or programming languages? Use the O'Reilly database to find ebooks, videos, and tutorials. Items on this database are accessed a bit differently than our other sources, see Using items on O'Reilly platform.

Important Citation Advice:

• If you are not required to use a specific style, pick a style and stick to it. 
• Some resources may provide a citation for you to use - these provided citations may be in different styles, so do not copy/paste without editing to be in the style being used.
• See below for options to get guides and tools for formatting bibliographies and proper citation methods.
• Choose a Citation Manager and stick with it. The OSU Libraries has access to RefWorks and EndNote. Zotero is a popular free tool. This guide will focus on RefWorks. A Citation guide allows you to organize your multiple research projects/courses and output bibliographies, also offering option to integrate into Wordd.
• ALWAYS check the quality of any output citation against the item used (not the database you found it in or another work's bibliography). No tool is perfect and another work's bibliography may have errors. 

Choosing Citation Styles in RefWorks

When you go to output your citation (click on the symbol that looks like quotation mark), you can choose a citation style from MANY different options. For example, you can search for American Geophysical Union (AGU) and then choose that option. You can click on the star so it's among your defaults.  

The most common citation styles are APA, MLA, and Chicago.

The following advice may be helpful as you work towards getting your research published:

Publication Venues

DO ask colleagues (if a grad student, especially ask your advisor/supervisor) for suggestions of where to submit a manuscript, but DON'T respond to unsolicited emails requesting you submit without thoroughly evaluating the publication venue (many of these emails are predatory journals).

DO consider publication from venues cited in your bibliography, but DON'T overlook options that might be a better fit. 

DO ask questions of the editor or publisher, but DON'T ask without thoroughly examining the journal's website. 

DO consider different options for publication, but DON'T submit to more than one place at a time. Most publications prohibit this.

DO try another venue if your manuscript or proposal is not accepted, but DON'T let a rejection get you down.

Writing & Editing Your Manuscript

DO thoroughly examine your manuscript for errors, correct citations, etc., but DON'T get yourself stuck in a constant revision loop.

DO have at least one colleague give feedback, but DON'T have unrealistic expectations for how quickly they can do so. 

DO use citation software to help format citations, but DON'T use what it outputs without checking it against each item (the item itself, not the database you found it in).

DO consider how some works can be adapted for a new publication venue (for example, reworking content from a dissertation into a journal article), but DON'T use the exact (or close to the) same content - most publications do not allow this and it may be considered self-plagiarism. 

DO consider coauthoring a publication, but DON'T forget to come to a common understanding and plan about roles, responsibilities, timeline, logistics, and division off work before beginning.

DO consider feedback if asked to make revisions, but DON'T hesitate to respond to or question feedback that you feel incorrect or out of scope for your manuscript. 

DO seek help if the journal is in a language that you are not fluent in (some publishers have services for this), but DON'T pay a lot for this without seeing if a colleague can help with language concerns.