If you found this helpful, you'll LOVE our free training on how to get published in high-ranking journals without lacking structure in the writing process.
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TL;DR: 7 most impactful strategies to write papers that get published
1: Tell a story
2: Create simple & clear figures
3: Prioristise clear and concise writing
4: Make your writing flow
5: Follow the journal guidelines
6: Convince in the cover letter
7: Invest in training
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Strategy 7: Invest in writing training
You can fast-track your publishing success (and your career) by investing time and money in writing training. Writing is a skill that can be learned!
💌
Strategy 6: Convince in your cover letter
Never just copy-past text from your manuscript into the cover letter. Use this space to sell your paper to the journal editor -- this is your chance to speak to them directly!
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Strategy 5: Look up and follow the journal guidelines
Many journals have specific requirements when it comes to word count, reference format, lengths of title, subheadings etc. It almost seems to be too simple to be effective but I swear it pays of to follow all of them!
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Strategy 4: Make your writing flow
You want to guide your reader through your paper. Learn the essentials about structuring sentences and paragraphs so your reader never needs to be confused while reading.
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Strategy 3: Prioristise clear and concise writing
Don't worry about perfect grammar or having to sound like an expert. Good writing is as short as needed to convey your ideas in the clearest way possible.
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Strategy 2: Create simple and clear figures
Readers (journal editors included) often skip right to the figures, so help them understand your findings and argument without having to read your whole Results section.
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Strategy 1: Tell a story
Treat your paper as a story, not just as a report of your data. Story-telling provides context and helps the reader understand the significance of your findings.
2026 is the year you want to change the way you write your papers?
As an academic writing coach, here are the 7 most impactful strategies to write papers that get published.
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Usually, when you take an online course, it's just a huge group of people, it's never so personalised. - Maria Olczak, PhD candidate and RWA Member
Hear Maria's experience and successes while inside the Researchers' Writing Academy: https://rpst.page.link/n8PF
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Finding it difficult to edit your grad students' writing because you're finding yourself completely rewriting what they gave you? ✍️
That's frustrating for both you and your students! We teach you and your group a more efficient process: https://rpst.page.link/AMv3
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There are options if you feel like you don' have enough time for social media. Advice from Jennifer van Alstyne, guest on the latest episode of the Researchers' Writing Podcast.
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If you are ready to learn a better system to get your papers written and published, then this free training is for you:
👩💻 Watch now here: 👇
annaclemens.com/training
TL;DR: 9 reasons for procrastinating on writing papers
1: Overwhelm
2: Perfectionism
3: Not knowing where to start
4: Inefficient process
5: Not feeling confident
6: Lacking guidance
7: Lacking motivation
8: Stuck in a vicious cycle
9: Hard to get in the zone
9: Hard to get in the zone
🗓️ Some researchers assume they need 3-4 hour chunks of free time to get any writing done. Not knowing how to make good use of shorter periods of time and how to make writing part of the workflow will inevitably lead to procrastination.
8: Stuck in a procrastination cycle
🔄 The longer you procrastinate on writing a paper, the less you want to do it. And the more you dread writing, the more you procrastinate. Being stuck in this vicious procrastination cycle can affect even other work and your personal life.
7: Lacking motivation
🎢 Writing a paper can be an emotional roller coaster and it’s easy to lose your enthusiasm when it gets tough. Getting a paper desk-rejected, receiving critical feedback or a page full of red can be demotivating and discouraging.
6: Lacking guidance
🦮 Feeling under-skilled at writing papers or lacking guidance in the writing process can make you feel anxious. The sad reality is that many academics have never been properly trained to write a paper.
5: Not feeling confident
🧑🔬 "Am I good enough as a writer?" or "Is my research good enough?" -- The underlying fear that your data and findings aren’t all that interesting or important can inhibit the writing process -- and so does self doubt.
4: Inefficient writing process
⌛️ When you feel that you are wasting time organising your ideas or it’s taking you a long time to write a single section, the writing process gets frustrating -- and you may end up giving up on it for long stretches of time.
3: Not knowing where to start
🛤️ Do you do the figures, create an outline or get all your thoughts on paper first? And what about the story? Not knowing all the steps that you should follow in the writing process can cause so much stress that you end up not writing at all.
2: Perfectionism
💎 You never know when to stop perfecting your experiments or data analysis because they never feel good enough to write up? Unfortunately, academia is fertile soil for perfectionism.
1: Overwhelm
🙆♀️ Writing a paper is a huge project that can feel daunting to tackle - especially if you have no or little writing experience. Breaking the project into smaller, manageable chunks will make it easier to get momentum.
Looking at a blank page and deciding that tomorrow will be the day you start the paper?
Here are the 9 most common reasons researchers procrastinate on writing scientific papers and keep growing that backlog.
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(Spoiler: It's not because you're lazy or undisciplined.)
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📅 Is one of your goals to get a paper published this year?
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"As a non-native English speaker, I always check things multiple times and I'm never confident of what I write." 😓
Does this sound like you?
Learn why being a native speaker isn't the advantage you think it is: https://rpst.page.link/VzKh
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So many new followers! Let's get to know each other! 🙌
I'm Anna, PhD, academic writing coach, and founder of the Researchers' Writing Academy.
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Comment if you know what I'm talking about. 👀
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