1. Writing Articles for Academic
Journals
Based on Macmillan Scientific
Communications’ Presentation (c)

2. Paper organisation Work organisation
1. Title 1. Research
2. Abstract 2. Preparation
3. Methods 3. Planning
4. Results and discussion 4. Presentation (style!)
5. Conclusion 5. Writing parts of paper
6. Literature 6. Revision

3. 1. Idea RESEARCH
2. • Previous work (notes, record of literature,
methods)
• Major questions
• Starting hypothesis
• Approach: prove or disprove or provide supporting
evidence
3. • Your methodology
• Your data
4. Analyze and interpretation

4. PREPARATION
(YOUR WORK IN CONTEXT)
• Focus
• Audience
• Main message
• Good scientific question
• Novelty
• The original data re-evaluation
(publishable/non-publishable):
1. existing ideas
2. new data
3. new avenues of research

5. PLANNING
(COHERENCE)
1. An outline (AIMRAD: Abstract, Introduction,
Methods, Results and Discussion)
2. Main points – the backbone of the paper
3. List of all ideas
• You don’t need to figure out a paper title at the
beginning, use a working title => MAIN TITLE (NB)
• Avoid a flow of arguments (salami-slicing): start
with the introduction, include the necessary data
to support the main claims but do not overcrowd
the paper

6. PRESENTATION
The ABC of writing style
- Be Accurate
- Be Brief
- Be Clear

7. TITLE
• Novelty
• Key message
• Descriptive
• Understandable
• Keywords for electronic searches
• First words to avoid: “On the”, “Study”,
“Investigation” etc.

8. ABSTRACT
• A mini version of the paper
• No detailed methods (unless methods paper)
• Avoid obscure abbreviations, acronyms and
references to literature and figures
• Avoid ‘we did X, which told us Y, and has
implications for Z’

9. INTRODUCTION
(EVERYTHING IN BRIEF,
FROM GENERAL TO SPECIFIC)
• what you have studied and why
• the task and objectives
• need of the current study
• the work in the context
• the key findings (try to mention 80% of the results
by the end of the introduction)
• literature introduction
• rationale for using of the methodology
• principal findings and conclusions preview

10. METHODS
• details for replication or reference
• non-essential (but required) details in
Appendix or Supplementary Information
• why this method
+ statistical methods if necessary

11. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
• separately or in combination
• the order of results (‘story line’, pedagogical way),
not the chronological order of the experiment
• one paragraph - one concept
• top-down paragraphs (main message in the first
sentence)
• proved results only
• justification
• alternative explanations
• only results crucial for your argumentation

12. CONCLUSION
• deeper understanding of your findings, not a
summary
• impact of your work (perspectives, but not
your personal plans)
• less is better

13. REFERENCES
• format of journal
• selection
• critical references
• avoid over-reference
• avoid excessive self-citation

14. CITE
(TO AVOID PLAGIARISM)
• quotations, opinions, and predictions, whether
directly quoted or paraphrased
• statistics
• theories
• case studies
• experimental methods or results
• specialized research procedures or findings

15. FINALIZING THE DRAFT
• revision (structure => content)
• proofreading
• colleagues’ feedback
• reworking
• language-editing

16. CHOOSING THE RIGHT JOURNAL
• Audience
• Scope (broad or specific issues)
• Quality of other papers published
• Publication frequency (some journals weekly publish
papers online ahead of a full issue)
• Publication form (online/print)
• Open-access/subscription-based
• journal owner
• production services:
copyediting
online search tools
online commenting

17. HOW TO GET YOUR PAPER PUBLISHED
• Online procedures
• Cover letter, details about the authors,
contact information, very brief background on
the research field, brief overview of the
paper’s objectives and findings => Why the
study is relevant? Why the paper should be
published?)
• Peer review
• After the review taking criticism constructively

18. NB!!!
• Significance of research topic
• Originality of the work
• Adequacy of approach/experimental design/techniques
• Soundness of conclusions and interpretation
• Relevance of discussion
• Suitability for journal
• Efficiency of organisation
• Adherence to style requirements of journal
• Length
• Clarity of writing
• Appropriate citations of the relevant literature
• Quality and suitability of statistical analysis

19. DON’T GIVE UP!
• Most papers get rejected
• Everybody gets bad reviews
• The iterative peer-review process strengthens
the message and scientific content of papers
• Be professional, thorough and respectful in all
communication with editors and referees

20. Teaching Methods Journals
• http://iteslj.org/Techniques ESL/EFL
• http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal200961/manuscriptSubmission JTE
• http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.896 The international journal of learning
• http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/cfp.cfm The international journal of teaching and learning in higher education
• http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Teaching_Techniques TESL
• http://www.collegeofteachers.ac.uk/publications/education-today Education Today
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_educational_psychology_journals List of journals
eLearning Journals
• http://www.ejel.org/main.html EJEL
• http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea eLearning and digital media
• http://www.aace.org/pubs/ijel IJEL
• http://www.eurodl.org EURODL
• http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication KMEL
• http://thejournal.com/articles/list/elearning.aspx LMS
• http://je-lks.maieutiche.economia.unitn.it/index.php/Je-LKS_EN/index JE-LKS
• http://journal.elnet.com.au/index.php?journal=impact IMPACT
• http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/resources/technology/journals.php List of journals
• http://je-lks.maieutiche.economia.unitn.it/index.php/Je-LKS_EN/index List of academic journals
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_information_systems_journals List of Journals
mLearning Journals
• http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalCODE=ijmlo IJMLO
• http://www.online-journals.org/index.php/i-jim iJIM
• http://navigator.nmc.org/library/mobile-learning-online-reflective-journal-mobile-learning-practice An online
reflective journal