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Publication record considerations for ECRs
Questions before developing a publication strategy
From authorship position and co-authors to quantity and quality, assessors of funding and job applications will draw conclusions from your publication list. What does your publication track record say about you?
Key takeaways
- Publication expectations depend on your field, but publish consistently to stay 'research active'.
- Maintain a solid ratio of first-author papers early in your career, shifting toward senior-authorship as you gain independence.
- Co-authors reflect your collaboration history and say something about the breadth of your research connections.
- Balance quantity and quality in your publication portfolio.
- Choose journals that align with your paper's focus and consider who you want to reach.
Read time: 5 min
Analysing your publication portfolio
How many papers should you publish each year?
This is a common question, but there’s no easy answer. The number is highly dependent on your discipline and the opportunities you have had. Nevertheless, unless you experience some form of career disruption, you must typically publish every year to be considered ‘research active’. Also, it is generally expected that your annual output will increase over time as you form collaborations and build your own team. To gauge what is a competitive level of productivity, a useful strategy is to benchmark your research output against that of an outstanding researcher in your field who is roughly at the same career stage. For example, find the names of early career fellowship recipients on funder websites, then look up their publication records in Scopus et al.
Get help
- Contact an Academic Liaison Librarian
On what proportion of papers should you be first author?
Typically, most papers arising from your PhD will be first author and the proportion thereafter will then decline. But it’s important to maintain a solid proportion of first-author papers for some years, so try not to let it fall too far below one third (with the caveat that these things can depend on your discipline). As your career progresses, senior-author papers – typically last author in most fields – indicate increasing independence and leadership.
Applicants for senior research fellowships are still asked, ‘Why don’t you have more first- or last-author papers?’ When you are neither first nor senior author, be sure to keep a record of the contribution you made to the paper; you may find you need to explain or justify middle-author roles in, for example, fellowship applications (ROPE Context on ARC applications, or Publications section in NHMRC applications).
What do your co-authors (especially senior authors) indicate about you and your research?
Recurring co-author names demonstrate a strong history of collaboration with a group, but they may also indicate that your collaborations are few. New and different co-authors will indicate a growing network of collaborations. The same senior author on every publication indicates that you are yet to develop independence. Even if your own senior-author research papers may be some way off, think about developing and demonstrating your independence by writing a review as sole author, as senior author (with colleagues, or with students you supervise), or with a senior author other than your supervisor.
Does your portfolio of publications indicate an emphasis on quantity or quality?
Lots of papers (relative to opportunity) shows that you’re highly productive, which is especially important for ECRs. But are you also producing high-quality research? What constitutes ‘quality’ is a contentious issue, but citations (‘article-level’ metrics) and journal rankings or impact factors (‘journal-level’ metrics) remain the standard indicators. Down the track you might be quizzed about having no apparent strategy for publishing in higher-impact journals. Or what about this gem: ‘You have a prolific publication rate, but does this undermine your higher-impact papers?’ (that is, a mass of mediocrity overshadows the occasional glimpse of quality!).
If you want to apply for a fellowship and you’d like advice on how your publication track record ‘looks’ from a funding perspective, you can also get strategic advice from members of the Pipeline and Pre-Award team (UniKey required) in the Research Portfolio.
More advice
- Citation metrics
- Citation metrics overview
- Get a publication and metrics report from an Academic Liaison Librarian
Selecting a journal for your paper
Strategic considerations
When considering which journal to publish in, consider whether your paper is a good ‘fit’ for the journal. Journal websites usually provide plenty of information about what they do and don’t publish. Your supervisor and/or mentors too should be able to advise you about which journals are best suited to your work from a discipline-specific perspective.
Publishing in highly-ranked journals is obviously desirable but can involve a waiting game, if it is even accepted. You may decide to aim for lower-ranked journals if there’s an imperative to get a paper published sooner rather than later: your competitors are hot on your heels, or you want to bolster your track record for a forthcoming promotion or fellowship application. Try to be strategic in making these decisions, and seek advice when necessary.
Your desired journal might also have high open access fees if not covered by your faculty or school or as part of the Library’s Read and Publish agreements. This might also influence your publishing decisions.
More advice
Who is your audience?
Are you publishing for academic impact or real-world (translational) impact? Academic impact (as measured by citations and journal rankings) is critical for your track record. Yet some research (e.g. clinical, public health) lends itself to publishing in journals with a wide readership amongst practitioners and/or policymakers. This can help establish your translational credentials, but the journals may ‘rate’ lower in ranking systems. In funding applications therefore it is important to explain that publishing in these journals is a deliberate translational strategy.
How to increase the visibility, accessibility and citations of your published work?
Title and abstract
Never underestimate the importance of an informative title and abstract, as well as judiciously-chosen keywords, for increasing your readership. These are also known as ‘metadata’. Don’t forget that people will often make a decision on whether to read or even access your paper on the basis of a split-second glance at the title or the abstract.
Open access
Consider publishing in open access. Open access removes barriers to research by enabling anyone in the world to access it, without a ‘paywall’. It increases the visibility and impact of your work and typically results in higher citation counts, as your work is exposed to a broader audience. It can also improve opportunities for collaboration.
The University has many ‘Read and Publish’ agreements that allow authors to publish their articles in certain open-access journals without paying article-processing charges. Even if you don’t publish in an open access journal, you may still be able to make a version of your work ‘open’ via the University of Sydney’s eScholarship Repository.
Scholarly networks
A growing body of research suggests the structure of scholarly networks influences the citation performance of research outputs. By identifying the most influential researcher, group of researchers or institutions in your network, you can then consider publication and collaboration strategies. An analysis of existing scholarly networks can be conducted in a variety of ways to reveal who the influential researchers are. Techniques include: co-citation (when two or more works are cited in the same document), bibliographic coupling (when two works reference a common third work in their bibliographies), scholarly field (using discipline/subject area), and grouping of like journals.