How to publish a paper in a masters?

Publishing an academic paper in one’s master can be very difficult due to the limited amount time and expertise. I was the 2nd out of 16 masters students to publish with my advisor, on top of that I came up with my own original scientific hypothesis. Here are a few tips for students looking to do the same.

1. Locate yourself for success

Originally my advisor was going to give me a geophysical data set from Reynolds Creek, Idaho. However, this site was 10 hours away from my home institution, University of Wyoming. Instead, I selected a fieldsite much closer at Vedauwoo 10 miles away. This gave me the ability to do iterative fieldwork and time to make greater scientific observations. I probably traveled to the location at least 30 times when I was developing my own method using seismic anisotropy to determine subsurface fracture orientations. Contrary to popular belief most new scientific discoveries are not found through postulating scientific hypothesis but through trial and error.

2. Have obtainable goals

Too many students go into a masters program with to grandiose goals. Two years is not a lot of time to publish a paper, submitting it with revisions can take up to a year alone. I made sure to select a project that I knew I could do in the given time.

3. Clearly defined goals

Originally I was given a relatively random data set from Reynolds Creek, Idaho. We were experimenting with different geophysical methods to characterize the near-surface to find water in mountain front watersheds. However, we had no hypothesis and the data was relatively random. Knowing I would be stuck with this dataset for the next 2 years I convinced my advisor into letting examine seismic anisotropy at Vedauwoo since it was already observed at the location. Another graduate student had sent the previous year analyzing the data with no real conclusions from it. There are critical moments life in which we must all advocate for ourselves. If I would have settled for Reynolds Creek I would have never have published.

4. Don’t do it alone

When I was struggling to develop my method I would run ideas all the time off fellow graduate students and postdocs. The biggest myth in science is the lone genius. The truth is we are all standing on the shoulders of giants. The great thing about the academic publishing process there can my many authors.

5. Just get your ideas down

No one starts off natural at technical writing. It’s extremely dry and takes a lot of practice. It’s best to have a poor draft and improve on it through revisions.

6. Don’t listen to the Naysayers

I won’t name people, but I had the top researchers in the field tell me my results were trivial and not worth publishing. A big part of life is having the confidence to believe in oneself and not listen to what the experts say all the time.

7. Be flexible and don’t be afraid to fail

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently". - Henry Ford

Many people struggle with changing up their mind because they are afraid to fail. My mentality in life is to fail often but fail fast. I probably came up with a dozen different ideas in graduate school, and the majority of them didn’t work out. The trick is to not to waste too much time down the wrong rabbit holes. Besides, don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once!