I've just sent my first paper off to an academic journal (humanities) with a view to trying to get it published. I'm a second-year doctoral student, and was wondering what the likelihood of it getting accepted/rejected/subject to revisions etc might be? Has anyone else managed to get published while a PhD student, and if so was it straightforward/difficult?

I was published twice during my part-time PhD, both times single author (I was a history student). One paper (in the more eminent journal) was accepted outright with no changes, the other was accepted subject to small revisions.

To be honest, based on my experiences with journals since completing the PhD, I think I was very lucky to have such an easy time of it. It's extremely common for journals to reject papers outright. It's also very common for the reviewers to have big issues with them (sometimes down to personal politics/biases), and even if you're offered a revision opportunity then for it to be rejected afterwards.

The most important thing is to keep trying. If a paper is rejected, either outright initially, or after a revision attempt, then learn from the reviewers' comments, rework it appropriately, and submit it to another journal. This is a lot easier / less time consuming than abandoning the paper completely and starting work on another one.

You also need to develop a really thick skin with journal submissions. Reviewers' comments can be tough to take. Alcohol might help with the first read through! I find it helpful to turn their requested revisions into a summarised to-do list that I can then work from. This also makes it easier to send in a document detailing the key changes with any revised version: makes things easier for the editor too, and the reviewers rereading it.

But just keep persevering. As I said I had 2 papers accepted and published during my PhD. I've had 3 more accepted since, and have others with editors now. So it can be done.

Good luck!

My advice is: expect it to be a very difficult and long-winded process, and then you won't be disappointed! I did manage to get a paper published during my PhD (I was in the sciences) but it was painfully complicated and depressing.

I was at the start of my second year when I first sent the manuscript off to a journal - it was rejected after about a month, and the reviewers were pretty harsh (well, 2 were fairly constructive and 1 ripped it to shreds!). So I rewrote the manuscript based on this feedback, and resubmitted. This wasn't as easy as it sounds, as there were four co-authors to please too, so this took months of writing and re-writing multiple drafts til everyone was happy with it. Eventually, I sent the manuscript to a second journal. This is where the fun began, as I am pretty sure they completely forgot about me and it took nearly a year of almost constant pestering before they decided to review the manuscript. Eventually, after another month, they provisionally accepted the manuscript subject to me making a few changes. So I did the changes, got them approved, and finally, more than 2 years after starting the process, my paper was published! Fortunately, it was published about a week before I submitted so I could fully cite it in my thesis, which was pretty satisfying!

I now work in medical writing, and deal with manuscripts from top experts. They too get their manuscripts rejected and ripped to shreds on a regular basis, so when I realised that it made me feel a bit better! It is very rare for a manuscript to just be accepted at first attempt.

So sorry for the negative tone to this post, I don't mean to depress you but I thought you should be warned about how arduous it can be! You might not have these struggles and your manuscript might be accepted almost straight away, but be prepared for it to be complicated and disheartening. And remember that this is completely normal, and most manuscripts get rejected at least once before publication.