For early-career researchers/faculty, a dissertation is the most promising source to increase the number of publications. But, when it comes to publishing peer-reviewed journal articles, whoever already experienced writing journal articles will definitely agree that publishing articles requires almost the same amount of effort as writing the dissertation.
Sine 2018, I have worked on publishing articles from my dissertation, and finally, by 2021, I got two papers published...See?! It takes almost four years!
One of the advantages that I got was I already made my dissertation in a two-paper format. There are two types of dissertations..(or possibly several types); one is a traditional five-chapter format (Introduction-Literature Review-Method-Results-Discussion) and the other is a combined journal article format (Introduction-Paper 1-Paper 2-Paper 3...-Conclusion).
I chose a combined journal article format because my research interests were a general classroom climate which includes students' perceptions and participation and teachers' knowledge and orientations. So it naturally comes with two aspects - students and teachers. That results in me examining a classroom climate through students' perceptions and teachers' epistemic orientations. I will set aside details about each paper for later. Let's continue to talk about how to really make it from the dissertation.
Once you almost drafted your papers, explore or discuss targeted journals. I have used a journal finder provided by each publisher (e.g., Wiley SJF, Elsevier Journal Finders) but it did not work well for me (I guess because my topic is a bit broad - can be learning, education, science education, etc. So I just submitted my manuscript to the top-tiered journal.. then I got rejected..
But still, it is good because I got reviewers' comments!! Having someone in the same field who gives you comment is very important. I revised my paper based on the comments then submitted it to the next targeting journal. Then I got rejected again..
No worries! I am writing this post because I want you to be discouraged. Rejection and Acceptance are part of life for people in academia. Be comfortable with rejections. 😝😝
I got reviewers' comments again then I revised my manuscript in accordance with their points. I submitted it to the next journal... I got a positive decision finally - "Major Revision" then make it published.
In sum, what I want to suggest is it is not too late for you to submit your manuscript while working on your dissertation. I know, it is a lot of work, but you know that you need a productive break while writing your dissertation. And do not hesitate to submit your manuscript! Reviewers' comments help you look at your paper from a different perspective and most of the time, it really helps!
Good luck, all doctoral students!
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