Publishing Your Research and Book Reviews

Ciara Wild MBPsS, Forensic Psychologist in Training

For many of us, getting published is one of the hardest parts of psychology training.  Publications of research are what reflect psychology as a science and us as scientist-practitioners.  This being said, achieving publication through the rigorous critique of our research can be the hardest part.  It is important to understand that published research must be of as high a standard as possible to maintain the quality of the outcomes in psychology, however this does not mean that your work is impossible to publish and doesn't mean that you cannot get your name in print attached to an article or otherwise.  We all have to do a research dissertation for our masters. There is a great deal of work that goes into to it from us and our research supervisors so why not publish it?  Many universities will offer to publish what they see as the best reports but there is no reason why you can’t go to journals yourself.

I chose to publish my masters dissertation and to try to get my name in as many relevant publications as possible through book reviews and articles.  My particular experience of this has been quite successful. Initially I chose to publish my masters dissertation.  I felt that I had worked hard on it and that it was currently relevant in the forensic psychology field, however I was also afraid that journals such as those by Sage or Wiley would not accept my dissertation so I decided to send it to the Division of Forensic Psychology (DFP) instead to be published in Forensic Update.  This was a very tense time for me, would they accept my research for publication or wouldn't they?  Luckily my report was accepted with the caveat that some changes needed to be made to the content to ensure the explanations were appropriate and to remove sections that were needed by the examiners of the masters course and not by readers. 

It was harder than anticipated to cut my dissertation down to publishable size especially after all the time writing, sweating and crying over it; I felt that everything was relevant!  All reports will need to be amended for publication if not for size then to answer the questions of the peer reviewers and to address the issues suggested by the editors however, the benefits of having your name in print makes it all worth it.  Having something published not only looks great on your CV to potential employers and placements but should make it easier in the future for you to publish again as you will have some experience of the process and what is needed for a successful publication. A word of caution with regards to publishing; publishers will consider whether your research is current and relevant to issues either happening now or topics where there is not enough information, these are the ones most likely to be selected for publication.  You may have to consider whether your research will need updating to make it more current and whether this will be viable.

In the case of book reviews. Lots of magazines and journals have a back log of books that need reviewing and this can be an alternative way of getting your name into print and practising analytic and concise writing skills. Book reviews are also a great way to learn about an area from a book you may not necessarily choose to buy for yourself. If you have the time to read the book and write a short piece about it then this might be a great starting point for you.  Alternatively, you could submit a non-research article to a magazine such as the Psychologist.  Perhaps you have been on work experience, helped with a particularly interesting project or done some volunteering and the charity or company are happy for you to write an article about your experiences there and an evaluative piece on its impact and outcomes.  These are all possibilities for starting the process of submitting for publication.  Other more mainstream magazines also often look for articles to be submitted and sometimes pay a small fee for the articles they receive.

I hope this has been of some help to all.  Please feel free to leave any comments or ask any questions.

Until the next instalment......