Publishing a paper is kind of like going through pregnancy and giving birth: it is painful and takes a long time from start to finish. This is especially relevant if you are the corresponding author, as you will then need to go through all the stages of the pregnancy – er, publishing process:

• Write the paper.

• Edit the paper.

• Continue editing until the paper makes you want to vomit.

• Send the paper off for internal review – that is, to be critiqued by your collaborators and co-authors.

• Do edits based on internal review.

• Submit the paper to arXiv.org.

• Submit the paper to the journal.

• Try to breathe while waiting for the reviewers to get back to you.

• Read reviewer comments, have a good cry, and take a few days off from working on the paper.

• Respond to the reviewer’s comments.

• Rejoice when the paper gets accepted after, hopefully, only one or two rounds of reviewer comments.

Responding to the reviewers

Be polite and sincere when responding to reviewer comments. Make sure you don’t sound upset or condescending. You need to keep your shit together now. This is the home stretch and you can’t mess it up.

Respond to ALL the comments and do something, even if something small, about all of them. Start your reviewer’s response by thanking the reviewers and telling them that their comments have greatly improved your paper.

These steps will go a long way in getting your paper accepted, trust me. Thanks to my Ph.D. advisor for these tips on publishing a paper. It definitely served me well.

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