Research is complicated. The guidance doesn't have to be.
From your first research question to publication, peer review, citations, visibility, and impact, this field guide explains the things researchers are often expected to know but rarely taught.
Where are you right now?
Research rarely feels linear when you're doing it. This roadmap organizes the questions you are likely to encounter from the first idea to what happens long after publication.
Finding the Literature
Find relevant scholarly literature, conduct a focused literature review, evaluate existing research, and synthesize the evidence to understand what is already known, what remains uncertain, and where your study fits.
Research Foundations
Build a strong research foundation by connecting your research question to theory, concepts, constructs, variables, hypotheses, and a framework that clearly explains what your study investigates.
Research Design
Design a credible research study by choosing appropriate methods, sampling strategies, measures, and procedures that fit your research question and produce evidence capable of supporting defensible conclusions.
Research Ethics
Understand research ethics and integrity, protect participants and research data, address informed consent and conflicts of interest, and meet the ethical responsibilities that apply from study planning through publication.
Research Data
Plan systematic research data collection, develop appropriate instruments, manage and protect your data, and document how information was collected so it remains accurate, interpretable, organized, and ready for analysis.
Data Analysis
Choose appropriate data analysis methods, evaluate assumptions, interpret quantitative or qualitative results, and turn raw research data into defensible findings without claiming more than the evidence supports.
Writing Research
Write a clear research paper that communicates your problem, methods, results, and conclusions while addressing reporting guidelines, contributor roles, and the responsibilities involved in preparing a manuscript.
Publishing
Choose a legitimate journal that fits the paper and understand journal indexing, rankings, metrics, open access, publication fees, predatory publishing, and other factors that shape a responsible journal submission strategy.
Peer Review
Prepare and submit your research paper, understand editorial screening, respond effectively to reviewer comments, and navigate manuscript revision, rejection, resubmission, or acceptance with greater confidence.
Post-Publication
Navigate research publication after acceptance, from proofs to indexing, repositories, academic SEO, researcher profiles, and responsible research promotion that helps your published work become visible and discoverable.
Research Impact
Understand research impact through citations, research metrics, altmetrics, visibility, and other indicators while recognizing the limits of using numerical measures to evaluate research quality, influence, or importance.
What are you trying to figure out?
You don't need to read the Field Guide from beginning to end. Start with the question that brought you here.
The things researchers are expected to know, explained.
Research training teaches us how to conduct studies. The actual research journey, however, comes with hundreds of smaller questions: What makes a journal Q1? Do I need to pay to publish? How long should peer review take? Why are my citation counts different?
The Researcher's Field Guide is my attempt to answer those questions clearly, practically, and with enough nuance to be useful.
About Manuel GarciaOne research question usually leads to another.
Browse the complete Field Guide when you know what you're looking for, or follow the Research Journey when you want to see how the pieces fit together.