Writing tips for academic publications

General principles for your next paper

Even if you’re at the earliest stages of your academic career, you will no doubt have published a few journal articles or book chapters or perhaps an entire book. There’s probably not much we can add to what you already know, so we offer just a few brief tips – or perhaps they’re reminders.

Key takeaways

Understand the publisher's guidelines, including topics, style, and policies for Open Access and ethics.
When collaborating with co-authors, allocate tasks and set deadlines, then edit for consistent style and voice.
Write clearly but don’t oversimplify, following your discipline's conventions.
Reviewing manuscripts can enhance your writing skills by reading both effective and ineffective examples.

Read time: 3 min

Read and follow the publisher’s guidelines

It’s always a good idea, before you start writing in earnest, to make sure you understand what the publisher is looking for. Most publishers produce guidance on the kinds of topics they’re interested in, their submission, editorial and peer-review processes, their house style (including instructions for images), and their policies regarding Open Access, ethical publishing, and other matters.

Investigating the topics that publishers are interested in should form part of your homework when you develop a publishing strategy.

Be aware of other guidelines, standards or conventions

In some disciplines there are universally agreed ‘rules’ for writing up research on certain topics. In medical research, for example, outcomes from randomised controlled trials must be reported in accordance with the conventions laid out in the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. You should be aware of any such conventions applicable to your own discipline.

Work with co-authors effectively

If you write publications jointly with other researchers, you are likely to encounter two common challenges. The first involves divvying up the work: who will write which sections? This needs to be determined right from the start. It’s also useful to establish a timeline with agreed deadlines so that everyone is working in parallel and in sync; this should include time to review and discuss everyone’s contributions.

The second challenge comes later, once everyone’s sections have been drafted: you’ll have a conglomeration of material written in multiple different styles, possibly with some content duplicated or presented inconsistently. Be sure to allow time for one person to edit the whole document, so that it reads smoothly and seamlessly with one authorial voice.

Aim for clarity, not oversimplification

The internet is awash with information, advice and training in the use of ‘plain English’ and ‘plain language’. Although offering some excellent principles for many kinds of writing, these approaches were never designed with academic or scholarly writing in mind. Injunctions to avoid jargon or unusual words and phrases make little sense for communities of experts who need to use highly-specialised language to communicate sophisticated ideas efficiently. (That last sentence broke another rule of plain English: only write short sentences. Oops!)

For academic writing, it’s better to be guided by the conventions and expectations of your discipline. You, not a communications professional, are the expert in this.

This does not mean, of course, that you have a licence to confuse your academic audience. You should still aim to write as clearly as possible, even when your topic is complex: writing clearly is not the same as writing simplistically. Think of it this way: if your subject-area rates 7/10 for inherent complexity, don’t bump that up to 9/10 through convoluted, opaque writing. In short, never make your subject more complicated than it inherently is. At the same time, don’t ‘dumb it down’ to 5/10.

Reviewing manuscripts (and grants)

Learning to read is one of the best ways of learning to write. We don’t mean learning to read in the way a child does, but learning to analyse how a text is constructed… or misconstructed – seeing what doesn’t work is just as helpful as seeing what does. Therefore, if you get the opportunity to take on an editorial role with a publisher, and it aligns with your career goals and current time commitments, go for it. Reviewing manuscripts will teach you an incredible amount about writing them.