Preparing a manuscript for submission

Preparing a manuscript for submission to a research journal.

A topic in research methodology

This page discusses preparing a submission, once a decision has been made about which journal to target. (Read about selecting a research journal.)

Instructions for authors

Most journals have specific instructions for preparing a manuscript for that journal, which may include information on:

• length of abstract
• word length limit for article
• format of citations and references
• placement and labelling of figures and tables
• required or preferred headings, and levels of headings allowed (headings, subheadings, sub0subheadings…) and how to designate (font size, bold, italics, capitalisation…)
• key words – are they required, how many…
• blinding of manuscripts
• specific formatting issues (required typeface or font size, indenting of new paragraphs, except for those that start sections, single/1.5/double spacing between lines, etc.)
• …

Each journal has its own set of expectations and requirements, and it makes sense to familiarise oneself with these at the outset. Some journals have idiosyncratic requirements…

"CSSE discourages any use of serial citations in manuscripts. Over the years the editors of CSSE have written extensively about the journal's position on the use and role of citations in papers published in the journal. The journal has a strong stance against symbolic citing of published research"

Cultural Studies of Education

'Serial citation' refers to supporting the same point with more than one source as in "Research can be carried out in social contexts (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2011; Creswell, 2009; Crotty, 1998; Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Hammersley, 1993; Stake, 1995; Taber, 2013; Yin, 2003)." Most reviewers for most journals do not like long lists of citations following a very general point, but this journal suggests that only one citation should be used to support any particular point.

Blinding

Many research journals use double-blind reviewing (Read about: 'Blind peer review'), and so require authors to 'blind' the manuscript (in effect prepare the manuscript so the reviewers are reading it 'blind' to who prepared it).

This means the names of the authors, their institutions, and contact details are not on the manuscript file that goes to reviewers. It may also mean removing other details in the main text ("as I am working in the largest University Education department in the east of England") or acknowledgements ("I would like to thank my technician, Tina Titre, for all her help in preparing the samples").

Sometimes authors are asked to upload both an 'unblinded' and a blinded copy of the manuscript at submission. Even if only a blinded copy is initially needed for the journal, authors may feel it is better to write the manuscript with these details and then remove them in the copy submitted. (It can be useful to highlighting on the computer text with a particular colour as writing to find these points quickly later.)

Word limits

In an ideal world one would write a research report without a focus on how long it should be: it should be exactly as long as it needs to be to concisely convey the necessary information for a reader to fully understand the study – its motivations, perspective, aims, design, findings and their implications. (This is why considering journal policies on word length is important when selecting a research journal.)

However, if working to a specified word limit it may make sense to plan hor the word allowance will be used before starting writing – that is to have a provisional plan of how many words will be included in each section (perhaps summing to 500 words less hat the maximum, to allow for some flexibility).

If monitoring section lengths whilst writing, this allow one to see if writing is within target. Of course it is possible to write more than intended for one sections if that is needed but this may mean reducing other sections.

The plan of the article…

…will vary from article to article. A theoretical piece ( 'position paper' or 'perspective') would not usually have an established structure, but would need to be logically structured with clear 'sign-posting' (helping the readers understand the structure and narrative of the piece).

A review of an area of literature may share some features with an empirical study, but this depends upon the kind of review.

An empirical study usually has a common outline logic:

"A key feature of a research report is that it makes its case through a logical chain of argument. As we saw [earlier], the research process has a logic, where decisions are made sequentially, and each stage of the process builds on what has gone before, and prepares for what will come later:
• identify focus;
• conceptualise existing literature;
• develop research questions;
• identify appropriate paradigm for developing knowledge sought;
• identify suitable methodology to answer research questions;
• identify sample, data collection instruments, etc.;
• collect data;
• analyse data;
• formulate findings to answer research questions;
• relate back to initial focus – draw out implications of research."

Taber, 2013: 321

Some of these sections could be drafted whilst the study is under way, but a research report focuses on the 'context of justification' (see The research paper as an argument for a knowledge claim ⚗︎), the argument that builds towards a particular conclusion, rather than being a discursive account of the researcher's story of the research, so sensibly one should know the conclusions that have been reached before the writing of a paper begins.

Drafting, editing, honing

It is unlikely a research paper in education or similar fields can be written in one draft. More likely it needs repeated revisiting to check clarity of meaning, to look for important missing detail, to avoid ambiguity, to be precise yet detailed…

In a co-authored paper, it make sense for colleagues to iteratively work on a paper, using tracking and the comments facility so that the writing process becomes a dialogue, where authors build on each other's work. It may make sense for different people to take responsibility for initially drafting different sections, but patchwork manuscripts which have different 'voices' or 'styles' in different places do not read well.

Note on authorship. Although there is no expectation that all members of an author team contribute to drafting and editing the work equally, and indeed contribution to writing is not a requirement to be the author of a research paper (read about how 'Authorship' is understood in research writing ), it is required that all named authors agree that a manuscript is ready to go to the journal before submission. The submitting authors is often asked to confirm all authors have approved the submission.

Read about the process of submitting a manuscript to a research journal.