Where does all the research go? Reflections on supporting trainee-applied psychologists to publish their research

Abstract

This guest editorial reflects upon the vast amount of research that is being undertaken by trainees in the therapeutic professions that never sees the light of day and considers the question: ‘where does all the research go?’ We begin by reflecting upon the relationship between therapeutic practitioners and research, before considering the reasons why trainees do not commonly publish their work (e.g. ‘completing poor quality work’; ‘time’; ‘ignorance/inexperience’ and ‘lack of support from their supervisor’). Particular focus is given to the importance of the research supervisor–trainee relationship and we hope to make transparent the discussions that individuals may engage in when agreeing to work together and produce research papers. This includes a discussion of the issues surrounding authorship credit and order in supervisor–trainee publications. We then go on to outline potential expectations of both these parties during the lifespan of a research project, explicitly considering the following stages: ‘choosing a topic’; ‘design’; ‘data collection’; ‘writing up’; ‘making a submission for publication’; ‘peer review’; ‘feedback and revision’ and ‘publication and beyond’. We finally provide a number of publishing scenarios that individuals may encounter with a view to considering your own view on the issues being discussed.