Do you wish to publish your work but don’t know how to get started? We asked some of our student authors, Janne Hellerup Nielsen, Dimitar Karadzhov, and Noelle Sammon, to share their experience of getting published.
Janne Hellerup Nielsen is a psychology graduate from Copenhagen University. Currently, she works in the field of selection and recruitment within the Danish Defence. She is the first author of the research article “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Danish Soldiers 2.5 Years after Military Deployment in Afghanistan: The Role of Personality Traits as Predisposing Risk Factors”. Prior to this publication, she had no experience with publishing or peer review but she decided to submit her research to JEPS because “it is a peer reviewed journal and the staff at JEPS are very helpful, which was a great help during the editing and publishing process.”
Dimitar Karadzhov moved to Glasgow, United Kingdom to study psychology (bachelor of science) at the University of Glasgow. He completed his undergraduate degree in 2014 and he is currently completing a part-time master of science in global mental health at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of “Assessing Resilience in War-Affected Children and Adolescents: A Critical Review”. Prior to this publication, he had no experience with publishing or peer review. Now having gone through the publication process, he recommends fellow students to submit their work because “it is a great research and networking experience.”
Noelle Sammon has an honors degree in business studies. She returned to study in university in 2010 and completed a higher diploma in psychology in the National University of Ireland, Galway. She is currently completing a master’s degree in applied psychology at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. She plans to pursue a career in clinical psychology. She is the first author of the research article “The Impact of Attention on Eyewitness Identification and Change Blindness”. Noelle had some experience with the publication process while previously working as a research assistant. She describes her experience with JEPS as follows: “[It was] very professional and a nice introduction to publishing research. I found the editors that I was in contact with to be really helpful in offering guidance and support. Overall, the publication process took approximately 10 months from start to finish but having had the opportunity to experience this process, I would encourage other students to publish their research.”
How did the research you published come about?
Janne: “During my psychology studies, I had an internship at a research center in the Danish Defence. Here I was a part of a big prospective study regarding deployed soldiers and their psychological well-being after homecoming. I was so lucky to get to use the data from the research project to conduct my own studies regarding personality traits and the development of PTSD. I’ve always been interested in differential psychology—for example, why people manage the same traumatic experiences differently. Therefore, it was a great opportunity to do research within the field of personality traits and the development of PTSD, and even to do so with some greatly experienced supervisors, Annie and Søren.”
Dimitar: “In my final year of the bachelor of science degree in psychology, I undertook a critical review module. My assigned supervisor was liberal enough and gave me complete freedom to choose the topic I would like to write about. I then browsed a few The Psychologist editions I had for inspiration and was particularly interested in the area of resilience from a social justice perspective. Resilience is a controversial and fluid concept, and it is key to recovery from traumatic events such as natural disasters, personal trauma, war, terrorism, etc. It originates from biomedical sciences and it was fascinating to explore how such a concept had been adopted and researched by the social and humanitarian sciences. I was intrigued to research the similarities between biological resilience of human and non-human animals and psychological resilience in the face of extremely traumatic experiences such as war. To add an extra layer of complexity, I was fascinated by how the most vulnerable of all, children and adolescents, conceptualize, build, maintain, and experience resilience. From a researcher’s perspective, one of the biggest challenges is to devise and apply methods of inquiry in order to investigate the concept of resilience in the most valid, reliable, and culturally appropriate manner. The quantitative–qualitative dyad was a useful organizing framework for my work and it was interesting to see how it would fit within the resilience discourse.”
Noelle: “The research piece was my thesis project for the higher diploma (HDIP). I have always had an interest in forensic psychology. Moreover, while attending the National University of Ireland, Galway as part of my HDIP, I studied forensic psychology. This got me really interested in eyewitness testimony and the overwhelming amount of research highlighting the problematic reliability with it.”
What did you enjoy most in your research and what did you find difficult?
Janne: “There is a lot of editing and so forth when you publish your research, but then again it really makes sense because you have to be able to communicate the results of your research out to the public. To me, that is one of the main purposes of research: to be able to share the knowledge that comes out of it.”
Dimitar: “[I enjoyed] my familiarization with conflicting models of resilience (including biological models), with the origins and evolution of the concept, and with the qualitative framework for investigation of coping mechanisms in vulnerable, deprived populations. In the research process, the most difficult part was creating a coherent piece of work that was very informative and also interesting and readable, and relevant to current affairs and sociopolitical processes in low- and middle-income countries. In the publication process, the most difficult bit was ensuring my work adhered to the publication standards of the journal and addressing the feedback provided at each stage of the review process within the time scale requested.”
Noelle: “I enjoyed developing the methodology to test the research hypothesis and then getting the opportunity to test it. [What I found difficult was] ensuring the methodology would manipulate the variables required.”
How did you overcome these difficulties?
Janne: “[By] staying focused on the goal of publishing my research.”
Dimitar: “With persistence, motivation, belief, and a love for science! And, of course, with the fantastic support from the JEPS publication staff.”
Noelle: “I conducted a pilot using a sample of students asking them to identify any problems with materials or methodology that may need to be altered.”
What did you find helpful when you were doing your research and writing your paper?
Janne: “It was very important for me to get competent feedback from experienced supervisors.”
Dimitar: “Particularly helpful was reading systematic reviews, meta-analyses, conceptual papers, and methodological critique.”
Noelle: “I found my supervisor to be very helpful when conducting my research. In relation to the write-up of the paper, I found that having peers and non-psychology friends read and review my paper helped ensure that it was understandable, especially for lay people.”
Finally, here are some words of wisdom from our authors.
Janne: “Don’t think you can’t do it. It requires some hard work, but the effort is worth it when you see your research published in a journal.”
Dimitar: “Choose a topic you are truly passionate about and be prepared to explore the problem from multiple perspectives, and don’t forget about the ethical dimension of every scientific inquiry. Do not be afraid to share your work with others, look for feedback, and be ready to receive feedback constructively.”
Noelle: “When conducting research it is important to pick an area of research that you are interested in and really refine the research question being asked. Also, if you are able to get a colleague or peer to review it for you, do so.”
We hope our authors have inspired you to go ahead and make that first step towards publishing your research. We welcome your submissions anytime! Our publication guidelines can be viewed here. We also prepared a manual for authors that we hope will make your life easier. If you do have questions, feel free to get in touch at journal@efpsa.org.
This post was edited by Altan Orhon.
