Start publishing

Right from the earliest stages it’s important to start demonstrating a track record for publishing. Read around the research in your area of interest. The Mental Elf website is a great place to start for that. Once you are familiar with the main themes and priorities relating to your experience as a practitioner (or a trainee), you'll be in a great position to start writing. You can publish case reports, service reviews, focus groups or opinion pieces. It doesn't have to be in the big journals - even a piece in the newsletter of the organisation you are working for now can demonstrate your aptitude for this aspect of the research career.

“Try and get published – it could be a quality improvement project, it could be a review of an innovative service you’ve worked in.”

– Louise Howard, Professor of Psychiatry

“We had read a lot of papers. We wrote ours, got our paper peer reviewed, revised it and there it was - my first publication.”
- Ben Hannigan, Professor of Nursing

Start publishing