Publishing for a Psychologist who's a bit "rusty"

[DrGero]

---

Members don't see this ad.

... I've been working in california for the last four years doing clinical work (the last three at a VA facility in Livermore) and while I was able to get several publications under my belt as a student, intern, and post-doc, I have since largely dropped out of the mix in terms of contributing to the literature base (short of one brief case report I published in a newsletter recently).

Part of my struggle has been the fact that I've been doing primarily clinical work, and lots of it, and have been trying to establish myself in my VA job and also raise my family (I have two children).

I am at the point where I have begun to write up case reports, and am exploring small-scale 'clinical evaluations' (I am limited in how much formal research I can engage in as a clinical staff member) - what I'm wondering is if anyone has any tips as to how to get back into the process of submitting articles for formal publication after many years of being out of the loop.

I should say that all of my publications (which include chapters and articles) have happened as a result of being involved with a highly productive research mentor or research group. In the end, my mentors were the ones that submitted the articles, and dealt with the peer review process.

Currently, I work in a fairly isolated setting, professionally speaking, largely surrounded by nurses and physicians, with no mental health colleagues nearby. Hard to get that team spirit going!

Any suggestions? Part of my problem is as much experience, I suppose (e.g., I haven't had much experience striking out in the world of published academic research on my own), as it is anxiety (e.g., doing things on my own). I certainly pride myself on reading primary research regularly, and I'm proud of my ability to write, so those aren't limitations.

Any thoughts? Sorry if my thoughts don't sound too focused. First post here. Nice to be here. 😀

 

[FastLane051]

I am currently a pharmacy student doing some APA work and I would love to hear about this as well

 

[Ollie123]

Another possibility, though perhaps requiring a bit more self-study, is the use of publicly available datasets. There are a number of major studies where data is available. It can be a difficult process, as you generally need to secure permission, but if memory serves any study that cost more than a certain dollar amount, a "data sharing" plan has to be included to justify the expenditure.

Many have already been mined to death, but not all have, and there may be options for the sufficiently creative. At the very least, if you can get your paws on the data just to replicate other people's work for yourself, it might be good way to practice and hone your statistical skills before trying something new.

 

[erg923]

Some students in my program have been pilfering the Reach II data set non-stop for years now....

 

[DrGero]

Some students in my program have been pilfering the Reach II data set non-stop for years now....

What a coincidence. I was a Menlo Park research assistant for Reach II about seven years back. 🙂