How do I get my thesis published?

The professional culmination of conducting a thesis is to get it published in a leading journal in your field. Making this final step to publication, however, often proves too much for most students and the couple of lonely copies of their thesis collect dust on the library shelves forever onwards. Don't let this happen to you! Start planning early for possible thesis publication, so you can get a head start and are more likely to follow it through. Basically, the steps involved are:

1. Consult with your supervisor. Discuss and develop a publication plan with your thesis. The challenge is basically to refine, focus and shorten the study for publication purposes. As the thesis is primarily the students' work, the student should be the first author on the article and the supervisor(s) and any other collaborators are subsequent authors.
2. Identify possible journals Discuss possible journals with your supervisor. It is recommended that you have a list of about four journals, in order of priority, that you would to have your work published in. Places to search: 2010 finalised journals in a Field of Research 1701: Psychology
3. Author guidelines. Get hold of the journals' guidelines for authors. Check to see whether any of the journals are planning a special issue which is related to your topic. Get hold of recent and related articles from the target journals to get a feel for the length and style of articles the journal is publishing. It is critical to get the right 'feel' of the journal to help guide your writing and formatting.
4. What is your main point? Look over your thesis and try to work out the main point that your thesis makes, what parts of the thesis are essential in making that point, and which parts can be left aside. An article is a much tighter, more focused version of the thesis and it does not necessarily have to summarise the whole thesis. But it does need to have a clear question which is succintly, even elegantly, addressed. It is strongly recommended at this point, if you haven't already, that you have a planning meeting with your coauthors to decide the direction of the article.
5. First draft. Have a go at a first draft, based on rewriting the thesis. You will need to chop out a lot of material, e.g., a lot of appendices, summarise all sections, and so on. Then work to weave the flow together. When you have a first draft, take this to the second author and ask them to read over and make comments and changes.
6. Redrafting. The more redrafting the better. It is always tempting to send off an article before it is really ready. Avoid this temptation by always doing just one more draft before sending it off - it might make the difference between acceptance and rejection. In redrafting, pay very close attention to correct APA formatting for journal article submissions.
7. Cover letter. Draft a cover letter to the journal editor to go with your article - this is an important component and is kind of like putting a suit on for an interview. A well-written cover letter can make a significant difference to how the article will be received. Then send it off!
8. Publication. The journal editor should acknowledge receipt of your article and reasonably quickly indicate whether the article is to be sent out for review. Note that you can only sent your article to one journal at a time. If the editor decides to have the article reviewed (rather than rejects it), this will usually take 2 to 3 months. Acceptance rates vary between journals. It is extremely rare, however, that an article is accepted without need for some changes. If your article is rejected, read the feedback carefully, make appropriate changes and send the article off to the #2 journal on your hit list.
9. Resubmission. Having had your article provisionally accepted by a journal, it is now "in-press". Carefully go through the reviewers' comments and make appropriate changes. This should be done in consultation with your co-authors. Write a letter to the journal editor summarising how you addressed or responded to each of the reviewers' comments. This new version may be accepted by the journal editor or be sent out for review again and you may receive further feedback for minor changes.
10. Proofs. When the article has been typeset for publication, you should receive a penultimate copy from the editor. You need to carefully examine the proof for any small errors and inform the editor.
11. Publication Day! Eventually, your article will appear in print! Authors will usually receive complimentary copies of the journal. Celebrate with your co-authors! Announce the publication of your article. Add it to your CV.