WSUD AT OLD CASTLE HILL ROAD SUBDIVISION, CASTLE HILL

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Publish from your PhD Why, How and Where
Simon Beecham Professor of Sustainable Water
Resources Engineering Head of School of Natural
and Built Environments University of South
Australia simon.beecham_at_unisa.edu.au
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Why publish?

• All researchers, to preserve their integrity,
  have an obligation to publish the results of
  their studies (McMurray et al., 2004)
• Nothing is easier than not to publish. Anyone can
  be a bad researcher
• However, consistent publication requires a high
  level of research excellence
• Journals and books simply cannot afford to
  publish nonsense
• Publication is the way to keep researchers on
  their toes

McMurray,A., Pace, R. Scott, D.,(2004),
Research a commonsense approach, Victoria,
Thomson Social Science Press. Chapter 1, p. 19-23.
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Benefits of publishing

• Publication is a pathway to showcasing yourself
  and your research and has the capacity to help
  you gain personal or commercial competitive
  advantage
• gain may result in recognition or status in the
  form of becoming an authority in a specific
  field, and/or
• may even be used for promotion
• Research is improved through peer review
• How else could you get two to three highly
  intelligent world experts to spend two to three
  days of their time analysing your work and
  providing constructive feedback?

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When to Publish

• Once you know enough to have something to say,
  then you are ready to publish
• Three qualifications of
• authenticity
• originality, and
• significance

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Where to Publish

• Journal
• Long turn-around time
• often a gap of two to three years between the
  completion of a research project and its
  publication in a journal
• Can be archival
• More prestigious
• Better feedback from reviewers and editor
• Conference
• Immediate feedback
• Publication within 6 or 7 months
• Slacker reviewing

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Which Journals?

• Publish in high-ranked journals
• Impact factor
• ERA (Australian) ranking (A, A, B or C)
• See http//www.arc.gov.au/era/era_journal_list.ht
  m1
• Publish in the field

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Starting your writing

• Start early, dont underestimate how long it
  takes
• Have your content set fairly early and start
  writing under those headings
• Use the questions to structure your writing.
  Think of new headings to go with each idea you
  feel like writing about. Write under the headings
  and rearrange them later if necessary
• Dont be perfectionist in the early stage, better
  to get started than get it perfect first time
• Set a consistent format/template/styles from the
  start and use the same software throughout group

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Some tips

• Understand the writing process
• Managing time and place
• Procrastination is the thief of time
• Understand your audience
• Establish a clear structure
• A picture paints a thousand words

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Tips Papers in Progress

• Keep a folder on your computer titled Papers in
  Progress with sub-folders for each paper on
  which you are working
• Record your ideas for each paper on a whiteboard

Paper 1 .... .... ....
Paper 2 .... .... ....
Paper 3 .... .... ....
Paper 4 .... .... ....
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Objectives of a journal or conference paper

• Most people will never read your thesis
• dont think about this too much it can be
  depressing
• The best way to tell others about your work is
  through an international journal or at a
  professional conference
• This also provides a good opportunity for
  feedback
• Papers are summaries of your work for
  presentation to a broad audience, not all of whom
  are experts in your field

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Purpose of a paper

• Give readers a clear understanding of the
  research problem and why it was important
• Describe exactly how data were collected
  (experimental design and methodology)
• Present all data completely and precisely
• Interpret the data and describe how it resolved
  the research problem (or not)
• To draw conclusions and make recommendations

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Research highlights

• The effective porosity was measured and the total
  porosity was estimated.
• The total porosity shows a good correlation with
  the effective porosity.
• The exponential equation has been examined for
  porous concrete.
• A new model using Griffiths fracture theory was
  proposed.
• Proposed model represents a significant
  improvement over the exponential equation.

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Over to you...

• How many journal papers do you think you can
  produce from your research studies?
• What are the three main reasons why you are not
  publishing right now?
• Reason 1.....
• Reason 2 .....
• Reason 3 .....

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Conclusions

• Publishing in peer-reviewed journals is one of
  the best ways of ensuring excellence in your
  doctoral or your masters by thesis studies
• It brings in anonymous world experts to help you
• If you publish three to four journal papers in
  high impact journals, it is a brave external
  examiner that questions the findings of these
  peer-reviewed processes
• It raises your confidence and self-esteem and it
  trains you well for a productive future research
  career

Simon Beecham Professor of Sustainable Water
Resources Engineering Head of School of Natural
and Built Environments University of South
Australia simon.beecham_at_unisa.edu.au