'Publishing from your thesis'

Posted on: 2 February 2021 by Dr Rohini Roopnarine in 2021 posts

I recently completed my EdD (December 2020) on the University of Liverpool’s online programme, and the following blog post describes the lessons learned during the process of publishing since completion.

Imagine having completed your thesis, faced with the daunting task of now having the urgency to ensure all of your work is not lost in simply “getting the degree,” but that all that effort enables it to be “valuable” in the peer-reviewed literature.

Here are the lessons I have learned thus far, and some tips I hope that other candidates will find useful for publication. Thus far, I have produced the following from my thesis on the Factors That Influence the Development of Interprofessional Education and One Health for Medical, Veterinary and Dual Degree Public Health Students at an Offshore Medical School: 

• Invited to present a webinar by the One Health Social Sciences Initiative, https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/programs/one_health_social_sciences_initiative/ This webinar was attended by >200 international attendees
• Invited as a panelist and webinar presenter for a University of Pretoria, webinar series hosted by the University of Pretoria. The focus was on 1 HOPE and 'transdisciplinarity research capacity development for doctoral and early career scholars in Africa'.
• Published in the University of Kansas newsletter. Retrieved from https://www.vet.k-state.edu/about/news-events-publications/OneHealth/Vol12-Iss1/interprofessional_education.html

• Poster accepted at the World One Health Congress, 2020 - Roopnarine, R.R., Boeren, E.B., Regan, JAR. (2020, October 30-November 3). The missing professional perspective: Medical, Veterinary and dual degree Public Health student perceptions of One Health.[Poster Presentation]. The 6th World One Health Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland.
• 2 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals. A third submitted elsewhere awaiting a decision for publication (or a rejection?)
  1. Roopnarine, R. & Regan, J.A. (2021). Faculty Perceptions on the Perceived Need for incorporating “One Health” into the Curricula of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.  Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33433130/
  2. Roopnarine, R., & Boeren, E. (2020). Applying the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) to medical, veterinary and dual degree Master of Public Health (MPH) students at a private medical institution. Plos one, 15(6), e0234462. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0234462
• A book chapter (due for publication in 2021) with colleagues from the Department of Education at my institution- A Vet’s journey out of the cave. Book chapter in “Becoming.” Authors: Laura Colket, Tracy Penny Light, Adam Carswell.

How to begin?

You have recently completed your modifications (if required) and had your thesis product approved by the examiners. This is a good time to begin reflecting on:

• What did the studies you reviewed about your thesis topic, identify as needs for future studies? How did your study further these findings in an original manner? 

What journals should you target?

What are the key journals you utilized for your thesis. Peruse your “references” section and “bibliography” to identify the common ones.

 

What to do next? 

• Reflect on 2 or 3 major “original findings” that emerged from your thesis
• Draft 2 or 3 potential manuscript topics based on these
• Identify the journal you want to submit these to
• Draft an abstract and send it to your supervisors.

Next steps

Send the abstract to a relevant journal and seek their interest on a potential manuscript.

This process was arduous. We faced multiple rejections from journals for many of our manuscripts. Some of these provided valuable feedback to enable us to prepare for submission elsewhere. It is easy to become despondent, but keep going, the process of preparation is valuable in the learning process. Even better, is receiving an acceptance of your work in a good journal.