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and resilience ; my journey to publication
As an early career researcher , getting your work published in a peer review journal can be a challenge . Here , Rachel Rowlands shares her own experience and proves that perseverance can pay off .
W hile working as an occupational therapist in a social services setting in South Wales , I enrolled on a course to complete a Master ’ s degree in Occupation and Science at Cardiff University . The aim was to gain my MSc to support my practice and enhance my theoretical knowledge .
During our training , we were encouraged by our tutors to think about how we could ( and should ) be doing research to develop the evidence base . Nonetheless , research was always something that I had feared , and perhaps even more importantly , had never enjoyed .
Undertaking the MSc was a huge step for me , one that had filled me with anxiety and doubts about my own abilities .
Yet with academic supervision from Dr Alison Seymour , in 2020 , I completed my 20,000-word dissertation on the experiences of social care community occupational therapists in Wales of addressing obesity in the adult population . I gained my MSc with a distinction .
In the meantime , I had secured a job as a lecturer in occupational therapy and as part of my development aims , my manager encouraged me to share my research .
I was accepted to present my poster at RCOT ’ s annual conference , which was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic , and also face-toface at The OT Show . These were both valued and insightful experiences and I met many OTs who discussed how the results of my research resonated with their experiences in practice .
During my next performance review I was informed that there was still an expectation that I should try to get my research published within a relevant journal .
I admit that I felt out of my depth and unsure of where to start . After reviewing the contents of a number of journals , I thought my research may be relevant to a UK journal .
I quickly learned that each journal has its own set of author guidelines and content requirements and that submitting one generic article to a few different journals was not going to be reviewed favourably .
36 OTnews April 2023