At some point, almost every research administrator who considers publishing encounters the same thought.
“I would like to write something someday.”
The statement is usually sincere. It often emerges after a conference presentation, a successful program launch, an evaluation project, a mentoring initiative, or a particularly insightful professional conversation. The individual recognizes that they have learned something valuable and suspects that others in the profession might benefit from those lessons as well.
Unfortunately, that thought is often followed by another.
“I just don’t know where to start.”
This hesitation is understandable. Publishing can appear intimidating from the outside. Journals have submission requirements. Manuscripts have unfamiliar structures. Peer review can seem mysterious. Many professionals assume they need more expertise, more data, more credentials, more time, or more experience before they can contribute.
Yet one of the most encouraging realities in scholarly publishing is that most successful authors begin exactly where every new author begins: with a question, an idea, and a willingness to learn.
Scholarship is not a talent possessed by a select group of people. It is a skill developed through practice. Like mentoring, program evaluation, grant development, leadership, or strategic planning, scholarly writing improves through repetition and experience.
For research administrators, workforce development leaders, clinical research professionals, and program directors, the barriers to publication are often smaller than they appear. The profession needs more practitioner voices, not fewer. Many of the questions worth studying are already embedded within the work we do every day.
The challenge is not finding something to publish.
The challenge is taking the first step.
Why the Profession Needs Practitioner Scholarship
Research administration occupies a unique position within the research enterprise.
We design programs, support investigators, evaluate outcomes, develop workforces, manage complex systems, facilitate collaborations, and solve operational challenges. In doing so, we generate knowledge about how research organizations function and how they can function better.
Much of this knowledge remains local.
Successful mentoring initiatives are discussed internally. Innovative workforce development programs are shared within institutions. Effective evaluation strategies are presented during meetings and conferences. Lessons learned often remain trapped within organizational boundaries.
This creates a lost opportunity.
The challenges facing research organizations are remarkably similar across institutions. Questions about mentoring effectiveness, workforce development, program evaluation, research support services, compliance processes, and organizational effectiveness are not unique to a single university, hospital, company, or research center. When professionals publish their experiences, they help transform local solutions into collective knowledge.
The profession advances when practitioners contribute what they learn.
This is particularly important because practitioners often ask different questions than traditional academic researchers. They focus on implementation, sustainability, effectiveness, scalability, and operational realities. These perspectives add valuable dimensions to the scholarly literature.
The field does not simply benefit from practitioner scholarship.
It depends on it.
Rethinking What Counts as a Publication
One reason many professionals postpone publishing is that they imagine their first paper must be a large-scale empirical study.
The mental image often involves complex statistical analyses, extensive datasets, external funding, and years of research effort. While such projects certainly have value, they represent only one pathway into scholarly publishing.
Many successful authors begin with much more accessible publication formats.
Program evaluations can become manuscripts. Conference presentations can become articles. Case studies can become publications. Literature reviews, perspective pieces, lessons learned articles, implementation reports, and practice-focused papers all contribute meaningfully to professional literature.
This distinction matters because many professionals already possess the raw material needed for publication.
A mentoring initiative that improved participant outcomes may become a program description. An innovative onboarding process may become a case study. An evaluation project may generate findings suitable for a manuscript. A conference presentation may contain the foundation of a publishable article.
The key is recognizing that publication opportunities often exist closer to home than we assume.
Many first papers begin with work that has already been completed.
Choosing the Right Journal
One of the most common questions prospective authors ask is where they should publish.
Interestingly, this question often arises too early in the process. Many professionals spend considerable time evaluating journals before they have clearly defined the paper they intend to write.
A more effective approach begins with the audience.
Who would benefit from this work? Who faces similar challenges? Who might apply the findings? Which professional community would find the information useful?
The answers often point naturally toward potential publication venues.
A manuscript focused on mentoring may appeal to journals addressing workforce development or academic career advancement. A paper examining research support services may align with research administration literature. Evaluation studies may fit within journals focused on educational outcomes, organizational effectiveness, or program assessment.
Journal selection should ultimately reflect alignment rather than prestige.
The goal is not simply to publish. The goal is to place the work where it can reach the audience most likely to benefit from it.
The Conference-to-Manuscript Pipeline
One of the most underutilized pathways into scholarly publishing begins with conference presentations.
Professional conferences serve as remarkable testing grounds for ideas. Presenters receive questions, identify areas of confusion, refine explanations, and learn which aspects of their work resonate with audiences. In many respects, conferences function as an informal form of peer review.
Yet many presentations never progress beyond the conference itself.
This represents a missed opportunity.
A conference presentation already contains many elements required for a manuscript. The problem has been defined. The intervention has been described. Findings have been organized. Key messages have been identified. Much of the intellectual work has already occurred.
Converting a presentation into a manuscript often requires less effort than creating an entirely new paper.
In fact, one of the most effective publication strategies involves treating conference presentations as potential manuscript drafts from the very beginning. Rather than viewing presentations as final products, authors can view them as intermediate steps within a larger dissemination process.
The presentation shares the work with a conference audience.
The manuscript shares the work with the profession.
The Power of Collaborative Authorship
Many professionals assume that publishing is a solitary activity.
In reality, scholarly writing is frequently collaborative.
Collaboration offers several advantages, particularly for first-time authors. Experienced colleagues can provide guidance regarding manuscript structure, journal selection, and revision strategies. Co-authors often contribute complementary expertise that strengthens the final product. Shared responsibility can also make large projects feel more manageable.
Research administration is especially well suited to collaborative scholarship because many projects naturally involve multiple stakeholders. Program directors, evaluators, mentors, investigators, workforce development leaders, and operational staff frequently contribute to the same initiatives.
These collaborations often create opportunities for co-authorship.
Importantly, collaboration should not be viewed as a sign of weakness. Scholarly writing is a professional activity, and professional activities often benefit from teamwork. Some of the strongest manuscripts emerge from groups of individuals who bring different perspectives to a shared question.
Building a Writing Habit
One of the most significant obstacles to publication is not ability.
It is consistency.
Most research administrators have demanding schedules. Program management, investigator support, workforce development activities, evaluation responsibilities, meetings, and administrative obligations can easily consume available time. Under these conditions, writing often becomes something that happens only when large blocks of free time appear.
Unfortunately, those blocks rarely arrive.
Successful authors often adopt a different approach. Rather than waiting for ideal conditions, they create regular writing habits. These habits may involve thirty minutes each morning, one hour every Friday afternoon, or a dedicated weekly writing session. The specific schedule matters less than the consistency.
Writing is cumulative.
A few hundred words written consistently over time eventually become a manuscript. Small, sustained effort frequently accomplishes more than occasional bursts of productivity.
Publication often depends less on inspiration than on routine.
Developing a Personal Publication Strategy
Publishing a single paper is valuable.
Developing a publication strategy is transformative.
A publication strategy does not require ambitious annual targets or elaborate productivity systems. Instead, it involves intentionally identifying questions worth exploring and creating a realistic plan for sharing what is learned.
This process often begins by examining current responsibilities.
What programs are being evaluated? What initiatives are producing interesting outcomes? What recurring challenges continue to generate questions? Which conference presentations could become manuscripts? What partnerships might support collaborative scholarship?
The answers reveal potential publication opportunities already embedded within professional work.
Over time, patterns begin to emerge. Certain topics capture ongoing interest. Specific questions continue resurfacing. Areas of expertise gradually develop. A coherent scholarly identity starts to form.
The most productive authors are not necessarily those who publish the most.
They are often those who publish with purpose.
Practical Application
If publishing feels overwhelming, begin with a simple exercise.
Create a list of ten potential publication ideas drawn from your current work. Include evaluation projects, mentoring initiatives, workforce development programs, conference presentations, operational improvements, and recurring professional questions. Do not evaluate the ideas immediately. Simply generate the list.
Next, identify the idea that appears most feasible rather than most ambitious.
Which project already has data? Which presentation is largely complete? Which initiative has clear outcomes? Which topic could reasonably become a manuscript within six months?
This becomes your starting point.
Finally, schedule time for writing before you feel ready.
Most authors never reach a moment when they feel completely prepared to begin. Progress occurs when writing starts despite uncertainty.
Closing Reflection
Every published author once faced a first submission.
They wondered whether their idea was important enough. They questioned whether their writing was good enough. They worried about peer review, journal selection, and potential rejection. The uncertainty felt real because it was real.
What separated future authors from future non-authors was not confidence.
It was action.
Research administration, workforce development, clinical research support, program evaluation, mentoring, and organizational leadership generate valuable insights every day. Many of those insights deserve broader audiences. Many contain lessons that could improve practice across institutions and organizations.
The profession advances when practitioners share what they learn.
Your first publication does not need to change the field.
It simply needs to contribute to the conversation.
And the next meaningful contribution may already be sitting within the work you are doing today.Reflection Question:
What is one paper you could realistically begin drafting within the next six months?
