Publishing is one of the cornerstones of scientific research, and seeing your work in print is one of the most rewarding outcomes of a PhD. In this session, we look at the whole process of writing a scientific paper, from choosing an appropriate journal to the point of final publication. In the first part of this session, we will discuss the way in which publishing in academic journals works. We will think about how to choose the most appropriate journal for your paper, including an appraisal of the various schemes for measuring journal ‘impact’ and discuss the editorial and peer review process. The second part covers the art of writing your paper. We discuss elements of article structure and writing style, and try to distil out the elements that go to make up a ‘good’ paper.