Sage Journals Information

Information for editors

Support your students and mentees through the publishing process

Publishing for the first time can feel overwhelming for students and early career researchers. As a mentor, supervisor, or advisor, you play a critical role in helping them understand academic publishing, choose the right journals, publish their research, and develop editorial skills for future academic careers.

If you’re mentoring a student who’s preparing to publish (or revise a submission), use the steps below to decide what to focus on first.

Each section below expands on these steps with practical guidance and resources you can share with your students.

Help students understand publishing journal articles

Choose a journal and prepare the manuscript to fit

Start journal selection by narrowing options and checking fit (scope, audience, article type) before you draft. Mentors can help by:

• Sharing discipline-specific recommendations for reputable journals
• Explaining journal scope, audience, and article types
• Reviewing recent issues with students to assess manuscript fit and expectations
• Helping students to write with a journal audience/readers in mind
• Providing support with pre-submission inquiries and drafting submission cover letters
• Explaining best practice for using AI in manuscript writing

When it comes to writing, mentors can further support students by:

• Sharing examples of successful articles
• Highlighting journal author guidelines and templates, including when to apply reporting guidelines and how to structure author declarations
• Encouraging participation in writing workshops or peer writing groups
• Helping students transition from thesis-style writing to journal-ready manuscripts
• Creating an encouraging atmosphere where writing drafts is prioritized alongside other academic responsibilities

Convert a thesis into a journal article

Dissertations and theses are rarely publishable in their original form. Mentors play a key role in helping students:

• Identify publishable sections or themes within a larger work
• Condense content to meet journal length and focus requirements
• Decide whether work should become one article or multiple distinct pieces
• Ensure journals accept dissertation-derived submissions

Providing concrete examples, especially from former students, can be especially valuable at this stage.

Common pitfalls when turning a dissertation into a publishable article

• Submitting the dissertation without significant revision for journal requirements
• Failing to condense or focus content to meet word limits
• Overlooking the need to tailor the manuscript’s scope to the journal’s audience
• Including excessive background or literature review instead of focusing on core findings
• Neglecting to check whether the target journal accepts dissertation-based submissions
• Missing opportunities to divide the dissertation into multiple publishable articles
• Ignoring journal formatting and citation style guidelines

Coach students through peer review

Peer review is a cornerstone of academic publishing and offers a meaningful opportunity for skill development.

Introduce peer review early

Early exposure to peer review helps students understand the process and builds resilience in responding to feedback. Mentors can demystify peer review by:

• Explaining how peer review works and what reviewers expect from submissions
• Examining actual reviewer reports together and guiding students on how to respond constructively
• Practicing point-by-point responses to reviewer feedback during manuscript revisions

These activities foster resilience, confidence, and a clear understanding of scholarly critique.

Co-reviewing: Bring early career researchers (ECRs) into peer review

Mentoring students through co-reviewing is a practical, ethical way to build a strong reviewer base and demystify academic peer review. Supervisors are encouraged to actively involve ECRs as co-reviewers, helping them gain firsthand experience and develop critical evaluation skills.

To ensure best practices and transparency:

• Seek permission from journal editors before involving ECRs as co-reviewers, respecting journal policies and confidentiality requirements
• Discuss manuscripts with ECRs, focusing on strengths, weaknesses, and reviewer criteria
• Model constructive, respectful feedback and encourage ethical review practices
• Ensure ECR contributions are accurately recognized either by informing editors or following journal-specific acknowledgment procedures

By mentoring ECRs and providing guidance throughout the review process, supervisors help build a community of skilled reviewers and support professional growth. Co-reviewing strengthens critical thinking, fosters collaboration, and advances academic standards.

Building editorial skills

Helping students build editorial skills now, pays forward: today’s mentees are tomorrow’s peer reviewers, editorial board members, and journal leaders. Early, supported practice in evaluating and communicating research clearly strengthens their careers and helps ensure the next generation of science is rigorous, fair, and able to excel.

• Have students write short, structured critiques of published papers (what works, what’s missing, what they’d ask as a reviewer)
• Practice abstracts and titles for the same study in different styles (specialist vs. broader audience) to build clarity and positioning
• Explain journal roles and how editorial decisions are made
• Teach publication ethics early: authorship criteria, contributor roles, conflicts of interest, and acknowledgment norms

Peer review groups, writing buddies, and departmental writing initiatives make these skills easier to practice while making academic writing and editing less isolating and more collaborative.