Workshop: Write. Submit. Succeed. - Strategic PublishingIn-Person Event

Thursday Feb 19, 2026, 9:00 AM → Wednesday Feb 25, 2026, 1:00 PM Europe/Berlin

online via Zoom

Publishing is a cornerstone of scientific careers - whether to build reputation, apply for grants, or land the next position. However, the pressure to publish can compromise quality. In this workshop, doctoral researchers will learn how to develope a sustainable and strategic publication plan that emphasizes quality, ethics, and impact.

You will explore:

• Publication strategies for both cumulative dissertations and monographs: including how to extract articles from a monograph, publish the monograph itself, and design a long-term publication roadmap (strategic publication plan).

• How to choose the right journal, taking into account impact, scope, and existing publishing agreements (by HZDR with publishers) that may allow you to publish without additional cost.
• Key stages of the publishing process, including writing a cover letter, navigating peer review and increasing your chance of acceptance.

• Co-authorship and publication ethics, including roles, responsibilities, and how to avoid pitfalls.

• Plagiarism and the role of AI tools in writing: a dedicated session with exercises and discussion on ethical AI use and plagiarism prevention.

• International publication cultures: with a focus on English-language journals, and brief guidance on when and how to publish in local languages to reach specific audiences.

• Understanding publication cultures, esp. metrics (e.g., H-index, impact factor), visibility, and author identifiers (e.g., ORCID) including how to select a target journal.
• The fundamentals of scientific publishing at HZDR, including the information services of the HZDR Library, effective literature search strategies.

• Key aspects of Open Access publishing at HZDR, such as the Helmholtz Open Science policy, the internal publication workflow in ROBIS (approval, funding requests, and secondary publication), and data publication via RODARE.

• Tools for collaborative writing in the HIFIS cloud environment, including SciFlow and CollabTex.

• Best practices for literature management and citation organization.

Join us to refine your publication skills and shape a publication record that serves your research goals - and the scientific community.

Training Goals: 

• Understand the “bigger picture” of academic, strategic publishing
• List key criteria for choosing a target journal
• Write cover letters for next manuscript
• Describe the stages of the peer review process and its variants
• Communicate effectively with editors and reviewers during the publication process
• Recognize and avoid common unethical practices in academic, strategic publishing

Dates: 

Day 1: February 19, 2026 | 9:00am - 16:30pm

Day 2: February 25, 2026 | 9:00am - 1:00pm

The second half-day is dedicated to topics that are specific to HZDR, making them especially important for participants affiliated with the institution.
Participation on both trainig days is mandatory. Please refrain from registering if you are unable to attend the full workshop duration on both days.

Location: online

Trainer: Dr. Andrea Sanchini; Maik Fiedler, Kerstin Henrion

Language: English

Method: This workshop follows a balanced approach, including input presentations provided by the trainers, individual learning phases and group exercises. 

Preparation: During the workshop, participants can draft a cover letter (half page to one page) for their next publication. Therefore, before the workshop participants are asked to prepare the (preliminary) title of their next publication.

Please register by February 5, 2026.