Introduction to the ‘Publishing Your Academic Research Paper’ 2020 Handbook

Introduction

The ‘Publishing your Academic Research Paper’ 2020 handbook is a detailed user-guide compiled by an academic research editor who has assisted with the publication of over 300 papers in SJR/Scopus/Clarivate Analytics (ISI) indexed journals. The journals and publishers are global and include well-known publishers such as Sage, Elsevier, SpringerNature, Emerald, and Inderscience, as well as numerous university publishing houses around the world. The handbook details how to find the right journal for your paper, how to structure it, and how to properly cite and reference your paper using styles such as APA, Harvard, Chicago (CMOS), or IEEE. There is also a detailed discussion about similarity/plagiarism software tools such as Turnitin and Grammarly, and critical tips on how to structure your paper to lower Turnitin’s report analysis scores. The Beall Lists are also discussed along with why these lists are still critically important to understand. The handbook’s primary focus is journals in the social sciences, but many aspects apply to journals across all disciplines. The handbook is also designed for ease of use, in which a reader can go directly to what they need to know without having to read the entire book. Hyperlinks to greater detail on topics are numerous, as well as images of actual journal editing, emails, quotes, photos, and Turnitin reports. The author would also like to suggest that related material and personal experiences could be of great interest to individuals interested in the business of academic publishing. Finally, the author hopes that a dialogue can be established with the handbook’s readers, so the 2021 edition can be made even better!