Field notes on getting published
Practical guidance on academic writing, peer review, revisions, and publication, written by researchers, for researchers.
- Publishing Tips
How to report AI use in a research paper
Report AI by the role it played: writing help belongs in a disclosure, while AI used in data, analysis, code, or figures belongs in Methods.
- Research Methods
PRISMA vs systematic review: what authors often confuse
PRISMA is a reporting guideline for systematic reviews. It tells authors what to describe, not how to search, screen, appraise, or synthesize the evidence.
- Publishing Tips
Can you submit a paper that is already on arXiv?
Posting a paper on arXiv usually does not prevent journal or conference submission. Check the venue's preprint, disclosure, and anonymity rules first.
- Peer Review
Major revision vs minor revision: what do they actually mean?
A minor revision asks for limited, checkable changes. A major revision asks for substantial work and often another review. Neither decision is an acceptance.
- Academic Writing
Introduction vs literature review: what is the difference?
An introduction uses previous research to motivate the current study. A literature review examines that research to show what is known and still unresolved.
- Academic Writing
How to Write a Research Gap
A research gap is a specific question that previous studies have not answered. Learn how to identify, write, and check a research gap.
- Academic Writing
How to Write Research Contributions
A research contribution is what a study adds to existing knowledge. How it differs from a topic or a finding, where it appears, and how to check it before you submit.
- Publishing Tips
What does a call for papers mean? How to read and respond to a CFP
A call for papers tells you what, when, and how a venue wants your work. How to read a CFP, tell it from a call for abstracts, and respond well.
- Publishing Tips
How to choose the right journal for your paper
Fit beats impact factor when choosing a journal. A plain decision procedure built on scope statements, recent issues, and published review-speed data.
- Academic Writing
How to write a good conclusion for a research paper?
A conclusion restates the answer, scales the consequence, and marks the limit. The moves that work, what never belongs in it, and a five-minute margin test.
- Academic Writing
Essential Parts of Academic Paper Introductions
Academic paper introductions have three parts: territory, gap, and claim. Swales' CARS model maps them, and missing parts show up as familiar reviewer objections.
- Peer Review
How long does peer review take?
Median times run from a few weeks at fast journals to more than six months at selective ones. The stages eat time in predictable places, and only some of them are under your control.
- Research Methods
Bad statistics can get your paper rejected
Half the neuroscience papers comparing two effects did it wrong. The statistical errors that get papers rejected are a short list you can audit yourself.
- Citation & References
Citation hygiene: what reviewers check in your reference list
Roughly one citation in six misstates its source. Reviewers spot-check the load-bearing ones, and every error they find is catchable before you submit.
- Academic Writing
How to write an abstract that survives editorial triage
Editors and reviewers judge a paper from its abstract before reading anything else. A sentence-by-sentence template and three tests to run before you submit.
- Peer Review
Desk rejection: why it happens and how to avoid it
Most desk rejections turn on fit, compliance, and framing rather than on quality. Here is what editors screen for, and how to run that screen yourself.
- Academic Writing
Line-level language editing before submission
A grammar checker can clear a manuscript that still confuses reviewers. Line-level editing catches the ambiguity, terminology drift, and overclaiming it misses.
- Research Methods
How to write a methods section reviewers can trust
The methods section is a reproducibility contract. Here is a section-by-section test for whether a stranger could rerun your study from what you wrote.
- Citation & References
How many references should a research paper have?
There is no universal number. Reference counts vary widely by field and article type, and reviewers judge relevance, recency, and accuracy rather than length.