Structured guidelines for novice researchers to produce their first peer reviewed academic paper

The aim of this paper is to document the process of developing a usable publication guide to support students to publish their first academic paper. Academic publishing is obviously a wide and complex field, taking many years to master. The intention was therefore not to develop students to “expert” level in a single event, but rather to get students to “novice” level with a first success behind them - enough to ensure that they will try a second time. We are here reminded of a quote from Henry Boettinger: “Training teaches us the rules, experience teaches us the exceptions” - we will focus on teaching the rules, by the second paper a student will be a bit more experienced and can start to experiment with the exceptions.