Workshop
Writing for Publication in Peer-Review Journals: An interactive and collaborative workshop
Saturday, June 28, 2025 | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM &
Sunday, June 29, 2025 | 8:30 AM – 2:30 PM
Organizer(s):
Sophie Calmé, Sarah Bologna
Description
Developing writing skills for communicating results is a fundamental yet sometimes neglected aspect of formal training in science. It is essential, also, to choose the right outlet and to understand the process of peer reviewing to increase the likelihood of being published. The proposed workshop will help attendees develop these essential skills and navigate the publication process more confidently and efficiently. Over two days, participants will receive training sessions including short presentations and exercises, with feedback from the organizers. The workshop will be particularly useful for early career scholars. As Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Tropical Conservation Science, we see a disproportionate percentage of submissions from the Global South that have promise but require more development than the journal can provide. This is our key motivation for this workshop. The number of participants will be limited to 20. Applicants should submit an abstract of approx. 300 words, as well as a brief description of their research, preliminary argument, and research questions for assessment. Successful applicants will be notified directly by the convenors, via email. After the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to submit a short manuscript (max. 3000 words) based on the sections worked on during the workshop, on which we will provide comments and corrections. Focusing on core writing skills, our workshop will help enable attendees to craft better articulated manuscripts. We expect there to be broad impacts from developing these skills, not least through increasing attendees’ chances of publishing in peer-review journals.
Program Outline
Day 1 (9:00–16:00)
Introduction and the workshop aims
Over the next 2 days we go through the essentials of how to write an effective article. Our experience has shown us what some of the most common barriers to publication are, and these are the focus of this workshop. Key to our philosophy is that the dissemination of academic research is, in effect, joining an ongoing dialogue with others in the field. Our emphasis is on collegiality and collaboration—because this is what we believe publishing should be about. Our aim is to grow the diversity of voices in the global arena (i.e., in peer-reviewed journals, which are dominated by the global north).
Teaching Session 1: The conversation paradigm
We think of scholarship as joining a conversation, and understanding the conversation as it exists is therefore key to writing a good article: knowing the topics, the questions, the parties in dialogue, what has been talked about, accepted, overturned, and what might come next. Publishing should mean furthering that conversation: not simply imparting facts or data, but offering a new perspective, lens, or concept, or a new theoretical construct that has meaning beyond a specific research project. This is what makes findings transferable, and is thus how research can influence and impact global debates/conversations. Rethinking research in terms of the conversation paradigm—and learning skills and strategies for joining that conversation—removes a major stumbling block to publication.
Activity: Form a pair with your neighbor and explain to them the argument of the article you chose in your preparation work, and how it relates to your own work.
Coffee Break (10:45–11:00)
Tea and coffee and cookies provided.
3. Teaching Session 2: Finding the argument
Output: a good working argument.
Lunch break (13:00–14:00)
Not catered.
4. Teaching Session 3: Mindmaps and Flowcharts
Output: bullet points of the article structure.
Day 2 (9:00–14:00)
5. Teaching Session 4: Materials and Methods
This section should contain enough information to allow your research to be reproduced in other studies.
Output: Bullet points of the key points the reader needs to know to understand how you conducted your research.
Coffee Break (11:00–11:30)
Tea and coffee and collation provided.
6. Teaching Session 5: Nuts and Bolts of Writing
A few key elements that will improve your writing.
7. Teaching Session 6: A brief overview of the publication process
Choosing a Journal
The top 4 reasons why papers are rejected
Dealing with Editors and Reviewers
Materials that participants need to bring:
Each participant will need to bring a laptop or tablet with the data they want to draw on for the manuscript they will be producing. They should have started a list of references and at least preliminary analysis of their data. If they already have a manuscript in progress they are encouraged to bring it, but this is not necessary. We will send details of optional preparatory work to each participant in advance of the workshop.
