best book for thesis writing

The best two books on doing a thesis

I started my PhD at the University of Melbourne in early 2006 and finished in 2009. I did well, collecting the John Grice Award for best thesis in my faculty and coming second for the university medal (dammit!). I attribute this success to two ‘how to’ books in particular: Evans and Gruba’s “How to write a better thesis” and Kamler and Thomson’s “Helping doctoral students write” , both of which recently went into their second edition.

I picked up “How to write a better thesis” from the RMIT campus bookstore in June, 2004. I met this book at a particularly dark time in my first thesis journey. I did my masters by creative practice at RMIT, which meant I made a heap of stuff and then had to write about it. The making bit was fun, but the writing was agony.

My poor supervisors did their best to help me revise draft after draft, but I was terrible at it. Nothing in my previous study in architecture had prepared me for writing a proper essay, let alone a long thesis. I had no idea what one should even look like. What sections should I have? What does each one do? In desperation, I visited the bookstore and “How to write a better thesis” jumped off the rack and into my arms.

I’ll admit, my choice was largely informed by its student friendly price point : at the time it was $21.95, it’s now gone up to around $36. In my opinion that’s a bit steep, given that the average student budget is still as constrained as it was a decade ago, but you do get a lot for your money.

David Evans sadly died some years ago, but Justin Zobel has ably stepped into his shoes for the revision. What I’ve always liked best about this book is the way it breaks the ‘standard thesis’ down into its various components: introduction, literature review, method etc, then treats the problems of each separately. This enables you to use it tactically to ‘spot check’ for problem areas in your thesis.

The new edition of the book has remained essentially the same, but with some useful additions that, I think, better reflect the complexity of the contemporary thesis landscape. It acknowledges a broader spread of difficulties with writing the thesis and includes worked examples which illustrate the various traps students can fall into.

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a review copy of Zobel and Gruba’s new collaboration: “How to write a better Minor Thesis” . This is a stripped down version of the original book, with some minor additions, but designed specifically for masters by course work and honours students who have to write a thesis between 15,000 and 30,000 in length. It’s a brilliant idea as, to my knowledge, there hasn’t been much on the market for these students before. The majority of the book is relevant to the PhD and since it’s only $9.95 on Kindle you might want to start with this instead and upgrade to the more expensive paperback if you think you want more.

My introduction to Barbara Kamler and Pat Thomson’s “Helping doctoral students to write: pedagogies for supervision” was quite different. My colleague at the time, Dr Robyn Barnacle, handed me this book when I was in the first year of my PhD. By that time I was a much more confident writer and I was ready for the more complex writing journey this book offered. And “Helping doctoral students to write” does tackle complicated issues – nominalisation, modality, them/rheme analysis and so on – but not in a complicated way. This is largely because it’s full of practical exercises and suggestions, many of which I use in my workshops (for an example, see this slide deck on treating the zombie thesis ).

Although “Helping doctoral students write” has more of a humanities bent than ‘how to write a thesis’, it steps through a broad range of thesis writing issues with a light touch that never makes you feel bored or frustrated. It argues that the thesis is a genre proposition – an amazingly powerful insight – and the chapter on grammar is simply a work of brilliance.

I’ve given this book to engineers, architects, biologists and musicologists, all of whom have told me it was useful – but I find total beginners react with fear to sub-headings like ‘modality: the goldilocks dilemma’. For that reason I usually save it for students near their final year, especially when they tell me their supervisor doesn’t like their writing, but can’t explain why.

“Helping doctoral students to write” is not explicitly written for PhD students (the authors are in the process of doing one). The new edition is an improvement on the old in many ways and well worth buying again if you happen to own it already. The new edition is around $42, which is ok but I think the Kindle edition is over priced (why do publishers keep doing this when many people like to own both for convenience?). It’s a great book for the advanced student who is prepared to roll up their sleeves and do some serious work. Not only will this work pay dividends, as my award attests, it will stand you in good stead for being a supervisor yourself later on as you will be able to diagnose and treat some of the most common – yet difficult to describe – writing problems.

Pat Thomson, is, of course, the author of the popular ‘Patter’ blog , so you can access her wisdom, for free, on a weekly basis. I should own up to the fact that Pat and I met on Twitter, as many bloggers do, and started to collaborate. I’m still in awe of Pat’s knowledge, experience and good humour. I sometimes pinch myself that we have become friends (in fact, she gave me my new copy of the book when I last visited the UK), but I hope this isn’t the only reason the new edition mentions the Whisperer in one of the chapters (squee!).

If I hadn’t already had deep familiarity with this book before I met Pat I would definitely have to say I have a conflict of interest, but I can hand on my heart tell you I would recommend it anyway. Pat and Barbara have written another, truly fantastic, book “Writing for peer review journals: strategies for getting published” but that’s a review for another time 🙂

Have you read these books? Or any others that you think have significantly helped you on your PhD journey? Love to hear about them in the comments.

Other book reviews on the Whisperer

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BITE: recipes for remarkable research

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Doing your dissertation with Microsoft Word

How to fail your Viva

Mapping your thesis

Demystifying dissertation writing

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The Thesis Whisperer is written by Professor Inger Mewburn, director of researcher development at The Australian National University . New posts on the first Wednesday of the month. Subscribe by email below. Visit the About page to find out more about me, my podcasts and books. I'm on most social media platforms as @thesiswhisperer. The best places to talk to me are LinkedIn , Mastodon and Threads.

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A Guide to Thesis Writing That Is a Guide to Life

“How to Write a Thesis,” by Umberto Eco, first appeared on Italian bookshelves in 1977. For Eco, the playful philosopher and novelist best known for his work on semiotics, there was a practical reason for writing it. Up until 1999, a thesis of original research was required of every student pursuing the Italian equivalent of a bachelor’s degree. Collecting his thoughts on the thesis process would save him the trouble of reciting the same advice to students each year. Since its publication, “How to Write a Thesis” has gone through twenty-three editions in Italy and has been translated into at least seventeen languages. Its first English edition is only now available, in a translation by Caterina Mongiat Farina and Geoff Farina.

We in the English-speaking world have survived thirty-seven years without “How to Write a Thesis.” Why bother with it now? After all, Eco wrote his thesis-writing manual before the advent of widespread word processing and the Internet. There are long passages devoted to quaint technologies such as note cards and address books, careful strategies for how to overcome the limitations of your local library. But the book’s enduring appeal—the reason it might interest someone whose life no longer demands the writing of anything longer than an e-mail—has little to do with the rigors of undergraduate honors requirements. Instead, it’s about what, in Eco’s rhapsodic and often funny book, the thesis represents: a magical process of self-realization, a kind of careful, curious engagement with the world that need not end in one’s early twenties. “Your thesis,” Eco foretells, “is like your first love: it will be difficult to forget.” By mastering the demands and protocols of the fusty old thesis, Eco passionately demonstrates, we become equipped for a world outside ourselves—a world of ideas, philosophies, and debates.

Eco’s career has been defined by a desire to share the rarefied concerns of academia with a broader reading public. He wrote a novel that enacted literary theory (“The Name of the Rose”) and a children’s book about atoms conscientiously objecting to their fate as war machines (“The Bomb and the General”). “How to Write a Thesis” is sparked by the wish to give any student with the desire and a respect for the process the tools for producing a rigorous and meaningful piece of writing. “A more just society,” Eco writes at the book’s outset, would be one where anyone with “true aspirations” would be supported by the state, regardless of their background or resources. Our society does not quite work that way. It is the students of privilege, the beneficiaries of the best training available, who tend to initiate and then breeze through the thesis process.

Eco walks students through the craft and rewards of sustained research, the nuances of outlining, different systems for collating one’s research notes, what to do if—per Eco’s invocation of thesis-as-first-love—you fear that someone’s made all these moves before. There are broad strategies for laying out the project’s “center” and “periphery” as well as philosophical asides about originality and attribution. “Work on a contemporary author as if he were ancient, and an ancient one as if he were contemporary,” Eco wisely advises. “You will have more fun and write a better thesis.” Other suggestions may strike the modern student as anachronistic, such as the novel idea of using an address book to keep a log of one’s sources.

But there are also old-fashioned approaches that seem more useful than ever: he recommends, for instance, a system of sortable index cards to explore a project’s potential trajectories. Moments like these make “How to Write a Thesis” feel like an instruction manual for finding one’s center in a dizzying era of information overload. Consider Eco’s caution against “the alibi of photocopies”: “A student makes hundreds of pages of photocopies and takes them home, and the manual labor he exercises in doing so gives him the impression that he possesses the work. Owning the photocopies exempts the student from actually reading them. This sort of vertigo of accumulation, a neocapitalism of information, happens to many.” Many of us suffer from an accelerated version of this nowadays, as we effortlessly bookmark links or save articles to Instapaper, satisfied with our aspiration to hoard all this new information, unsure if we will ever get around to actually dealing with it. (Eco’s not-entirely-helpful solution: read everything as soon as possible.)

But the most alluring aspect of Eco’s book is the way he imagines the community that results from any honest intellectual endeavor—the conversations you enter into across time and space, across age or hierarchy, in the spirit of free-flowing, democratic conversation. He cautions students against losing themselves down a narcissistic rabbit hole: you are not a “defrauded genius” simply because someone else has happened upon the same set of research questions. “You must overcome any shyness and have a conversation with the librarian,” he writes, “because he can offer you reliable advice that will save you much time. You must consider that the librarian (if not overworked or neurotic) is happy when he can demonstrate two things: the quality of his memory and erudition and the richness of his library, especially if it is small. The more isolated and disregarded the library, the more the librarian is consumed with sorrow for its underestimation.”

Eco captures a basic set of experiences and anxieties familiar to anyone who has written a thesis, from finding a mentor (“How to Avoid Being Exploited By Your Advisor”) to fighting through episodes of self-doubt. Ultimately, it’s the process and struggle that make a thesis a formative experience. When everything else you learned in college is marooned in the past—when you happen upon an old notebook and wonder what you spent all your time doing, since you have no recollection whatsoever of a senior-year postmodernism seminar—it is the thesis that remains, providing the once-mastered scholarly foundation that continues to authorize, decades-later, barroom observations about the late-career works of William Faulker or the Hotelling effect. (Full disclosure: I doubt that anyone on Earth can rival my mastery of John Travolta’s White Man’s Burden, owing to an idyllic Berkeley spring spent studying awful movies about race.)

In his foreword to Eco’s book, the scholar Francesco Erspamer contends that “How to Write a Thesis” continues to resonate with readers because it gets at “the very essence of the humanities.” There are certainly reasons to believe that the current crisis of the humanities owes partly to the poor job they do of explaining and justifying themselves. As critics continue to assail the prohibitive cost and possible uselessness of college—and at a time when anything that takes more than a few minutes to skim is called a “longread”—it’s understandable that devoting a small chunk of one’s frisky twenties to writing a thesis can seem a waste of time, outlandishly quaint, maybe even selfish. And, as higher education continues to bend to the logic of consumption and marketable skills, platitudes about pursuing knowledge for its own sake can seem certifiably bananas. Even from the perspective of the collegiate bureaucracy, the thesis is useful primarily as another mode of assessment, a benchmark of student achievement that’s legible and quantifiable. It’s also a great parting reminder to parents that your senior learned and achieved something.

But “How to Write a Thesis” is ultimately about much more than the leisurely pursuits of college students. Writing and research manuals such as “The Elements of Style,” “The Craft of Research,” and Turabian offer a vision of our best selves. They are exacting and exhaustive, full of protocols and standards that might seem pretentious, even strange. Acknowledging these rules, Eco would argue, allows the average person entry into a veritable universe of argument and discussion. “How to Write a Thesis,” then, isn’t just about fulfilling a degree requirement. It’s also about engaging difference and attempting a project that is seemingly impossible, humbly reckoning with “the knowledge that anyone can teach us something.” It models a kind of self-actualization, a belief in the integrity of one’s own voice.

A thesis represents an investment with an uncertain return, mostly because its life-changing aspects have to do with process. Maybe it’s the last time your most harebrained ideas will be taken seriously. Everyone deserves to feel this way. This is especially true given the stories from many college campuses about the comparatively lower number of women, first-generation students, and students of color who pursue optional thesis work. For these students, part of the challenge involves taking oneself seriously enough to ask for an unfamiliar and potentially path-altering kind of mentorship.

It’s worth thinking through Eco’s evocation of a “just society.” We might even think of the thesis, as Eco envisions it, as a formal version of the open-mindedness, care, rigor, and gusto with which we should greet every new day. It’s about committing oneself to a task that seems big and impossible. In the end, you won’t remember much beyond those final all-nighters, the gauche inside joke that sullies an acknowledgments page that only four human beings will ever read, the awkward photograph with your advisor at graduation. All that remains might be the sensation of handing your thesis to someone in the departmental office and then walking into a possibility-rich, almost-summer afternoon. It will be difficult to forget.

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How to Write a Master's Thesis

• Yvonne N. Bui - San Francisco State University, USA
• Description

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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“Yvonne Bui’s How to Write a Master’s Thesis should be mandatory for all thesis track master’s students.  It steers students away from the shortcuts students may be tempted to use that would be costly in the long run. The step by step intentional approach is what I like best about this book.”

“This is the best textbook about writing an M.A. thesis available in the market.” 

“This is the type of textbook that students keep and refer to after the class.”

Excellent book. Thorough, yet concise, information for students writing their Master's Thesis who may not have had a strong background in research.

Clear, Concise, easy for students to access and understand. Contains all the elements for a successful thesis.

I loved the ease of this book. It was clear without extra nonsense that would just confuse the students.

Clear, concise, easily accessible. Students find it of great value.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:             

• Concrete instruction and guides for conceptualizing the literature review help students navigate through the most challenging topics.        
• Step-by-step instructions and more screenshots give students the guidance they need to write the foundational chapter, along with the latest online resources and general library information.          
• Additional coverage of single case designs and mixed methods help students gain a more comprehensive understanding of research methods.           
• Expanded explanation of unintentional plagiarism within the ethics chapter shows students the path to successful and professional writing.       
• Detailed information on conference presentation as a way to disseminate research , in addition to getting published, help students understand all of the tools needed to write a master’s thesis.    

KEY FEATURES:  

• An advanced chapter organizer provides an up-front checklist of what to expect in the chapter and serves as a project planner, so that students can immediately prepare and work alongside the chapter as they begin to develop their thesis.
• Full guidance on conducting successful literature reviews includes up-to-date information on electronic databases and Internet tools complete with numerous figures and captured screen shots from relevant web sites, electronic databases, and SPSS software, all integrated with the text.
• Excerpts from research articles and samples from exemplary students' master's theses relate specifically to the content of each chapter and provide the reader with a real-world context.
• Detailed explanations of the various components of the master's thesis and concrete strategies on how to conduct a literature review help students write each chapter of the master's thesis, and apply the American Psychological Association (APA) editorial style.
• A comprehensive Resources section features "Try It!" boxes which lead students through a sample problem or writing exercise based on a piece of the thesis to reinforce prior course learning and the writing objectives at hand. Reflection/discussion questions in the same section are designed to help students work through the thesis process.

Sample Materials & Chapters

1: Overview of the Master's Degree and Thesis

3: Using the Literature to Research Your Problem

For instructors

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4. writing up your research: books on thesis writing.

• Books on Thesis Writing
• Thesis Formatting (MS Word)
• Referencing

Other Research Support Guides 1. Plan (Design and Discover) your Research >>  2. Find & Manage Research Literature >> 3. Doing the Research >> 5. Publish & Share >> 6. Measure Impact

Your dissertation may be the longest piece of writing you have ever done, but there are ways to approach it that will help to make it less overwhelming.

Write up as you go along. It is much easier to keep track of how your ideas develop and writing helps clarify your thinking. It also saves having to churn out 1000s of words at the end.

You don't have to start with the introduction – start at the chapter that seems the easiest to write – this could be the literature review or methodology, for example.

Alternatively you may prefer to write the introduction first, so you can get your ideas straight. Decide what will suit your ways of working best - then do it.

Think of each chapter as an essay in itself – it should have a clear introduction and conclusion. Use the conclusion to link back to the overall research question.

Think of the main argument of your dissertation as a river, and each chapter is a tributary feeding into this. The individual chapters will contain their own arguments, and go their own way, but they all contribute to the main flow.

Write a chapter, read it and do a redraft - then move on. This stops you from getting bogged down in one chapter.

Write your references properly and in full from the beginning.

Keep your word count in mind – be ruthless and don't write anything that isn't relevant. It's often easier to add information, than have to cut down a long chapter that you've slaved over for hours.

Save your work! Remember to save your work frequently to somewhere you can access it easily. It's a good idea to at least save a copy to a cloud-based service like Google Docs or Dropbox so that you can access it from any computer - if you only save to your own PC, laptop or tablet, you could lose everything if you lose or break your device.

E-books on thesis writing

Who to Contact

Nick scullin, phone:  +6433693904, find more books.

Try the following subject headings to search UC library catalogue for books on thesis writing

More books on writing theses

Dissertations, Academic

Dissertations, Academic -- Authorship

Dissertations, Academic -- Handbooks, manuals , 

Academic writing

Academic writing -- Handbooks, manuals , 

Report writing

Technical writing

Remember to save your work in different places

Save your work! Remember to save your work frequently to somewhere you can access it easily. It's a good idea to save your work in at least three places: on your computer, a flash drive and a copy to a cloud-based service like Google Docs or Dropbox .

Save each new file with the date in the file name as different files can get very confusing 

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How to Write a Better Thesis

• © 2014
• Latest edition
• David Evans 0 ,
• Paul Gruba 1 ,
• Justin Zobel 2

(deceased) University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia

Computing & Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia

• Offers a step-by-step guide on the mechanics of thesis writing
• Illustrates the complete process of how to structure a thesis by providing specific examples
• Equips readers to understand how to conceptualize and approach the problems of producing a thesis
• Written by authors with over 20 years experience of supervising and advising students
• Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

Front matter, what is a thesis.

• David Evans†, Paul Gruba, Justin Zobel

Thesis Structure

Mechanics of writing, making a strong start, the introductory chapter, background chapters, establishing your contribution, outcomes and results, the discussion or interpretation, the conclusion, before you submit, beyond the thesis, back matter.

• Dissertation writing
• Mechanics of writing
• Research writing
• Thesis structure
• Thesis writing
• learning and instruction

About this book

From proposal to examination, producing a dissertation or thesis is a challenge. Grounded in decades of experience with research training and supervision, this fully updated and revised edition takes an integrated, down-to-earth approach drawing on case studies and examples to guide you step-by-step towards productive success.

Early chapters frame the tasks ahead and show you how to get started. From there, practical advice and illustrations take you through the elements of formulating research questions, working with software, and purposeful writing of each of the different kinds of chapters, and finishes with a focus on revision, dissemination and deadlines. How to Write a Better Thesis presents a cohesive approach to research that will help you succeed.

From the book reviews:

"I have been using this book whilst writing my thesis and I want to express my sincere thanks to the authors as it has provided me with an excellent source of guidance and has made my life a lot easier over the past five months. I've recommended this book to a number of other PhD students and hope you continue to publish further editions as I found it to be an extremely valuable resource." (Chris De Gruyter, PhD Candidate at Monash University, Australia, March 2015)

Authors and Affiliations

David Evans

Computing & Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia

Justin Zobel

About the authors

David Evans was Reader and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne.

Paul Gruba is Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne.

Justin Zobel is Professor in the Department of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : How to Write a Better Thesis

Authors : David Evans, Paul Gruba, Justin Zobel

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04286-2

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Computer Science , Computer Science (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-319-04285-5 Published: 08 April 2014

eBook ISBN : 978-3-319-04286-2 Published: 26 March 2014

Edition Number : 3

Number of Pages : XIV, 167

Number of Illustrations : 2 b/w illustrations

Topics : Computer Science, general , Learning & Instruction , Natural Language Processing (NLP) , Popular Science, general , Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary

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9 Great Books to Help You Write Your Dissertation or Thesis

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: May 19, 2023

Academic writing is not easy and can be extremely challenging. As a research student, you get to do a lot of academic writing from writing your term paper to working on peer-reviewed journal articles, you definitely need a robust academic writing style to survive the popular motto in academia: publish or perish.

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Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational technology landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

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Resources for Dissertation Writing

• Getting Started
• Proposals and Prospectuses
• Literature Reviews
• Humanities and the Arts Resources
• Social/Behavioural Sciences Resources
• Sciences Resources
• Business Resources
• Formatting and Submitting Your Dissertation
• Tips: Making Progress, Staying Well, and More!

UBC Library Research Commons

About This Section of the Guide

In this section, UBC Research Commons staff have compiled a number of books available through UBC Library that might help you in your dissertation writing. In addition to the general books on this page, there are also pages with books related to writing in the Humanities and the Arts , the Social and Behavioural Sciences , the Sciences , and Business . For disciplines that fall under more than one of these broad areas, such as education or social work, we've included the books in all the broad disciplines that seem to be most appropriate.

If there's a book you've used that doesn't appear on any of these pages, please e-mail us and let us know!

General Dissertation Writing Books and E-Books

Older Books and E-Books

These books may be somewhat dated now, but can still provide useful tips for writing theses and dissertations.

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Political Science: Books for Thesis Writers

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While Sandel argues that pursuing perfection through genetic engineering would decrease our sense of humility, he claims that the sense of solidarity we would lose is also important.

This thesis summarizes several points in Sandel’s argument, but it does not make a claim about how we should understand his argument. A reader who read Sandel’s argument would not also need to read an essay based on this descriptive thesis.  

Broad thesis (arguable, but difficult to support with evidence) 

Michael Sandel’s arguments about genetic engineering do not take into consideration all the relevant issues.

This is an arguable claim because it would be possible to argue against it by saying that Michael Sandel’s arguments do take all of the relevant issues into consideration. But the claim is too broad. Because the thesis does not specify which “issues” it is focused on—or why it matters if they are considered—readers won’t know what the rest of the essay will argue, and the writer won’t know what to focus on. If there is a particular issue that Sandel does not address, then a more specific version of the thesis would include that issue—hand an explanation of why it is important.  

Arguable thesis with analytical claim 

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake” (54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well” (51) is less convincing.

This is an arguable analytical claim. To argue for this claim, the essay writer will need to show how evidence from the article itself points to this interpretation. It’s also a reasonable scope for a thesis because it can be supported with evidence available in the text and is neither too broad nor too narrow.  

Arguable thesis with normative claim 

Given Sandel’s argument against genetic enhancement, we should not allow parents to decide on using Human Growth Hormone for their children.

This thesis tells us what we should do about a particular issue discussed in Sandel’s article, but it does not tell us how we should understand Sandel’s argument.  

Questions to ask about your thesis 

• Is the thesis truly arguable? Does it speak to a genuine dilemma in the source, or would most readers automatically agree with it?  
• Is the thesis too obvious? Again, would most or all readers agree with it without needing to see your argument?  
• Is the thesis complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument?  
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12 Good Books on How to Write and Publish Research Papers

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Published: June 18, 2023 | Updated: October 29, 2023

Books on how to write and publish research papers are the topic of our blog post today!

Embarking on the journey of writing and publishing scientific papers signals your initiation into the academic and professional world. The transition from years of intensive learning to sharing your knowledge with the world is a milestone whether you’re a new Ph.D. graduate or a veteran educator.

Indeed, publishing your research is akin to emerging from a protective shell, basking in the bright light of scrutiny. This experience can stir feelings of vulnerability and impostor syndrome , particularly when your work is critically examined by peers, which is an inevitable part of the process. However, fret not, as with time and experience, you develop resilience, much like the tough skin of an alligator. We all do!

As a scholar, you’re likely acquainted with the often daunting axiom ‘publish or perish’. This mantra embodies the pressure academia imposes on its students and scholars to maintain a steady flow of publications. Such demands can sometimes feel stifling, seemingly inhibiting your creativity.

Having spent numerous years crafting academic prose, I’ve experienced firsthand the discomfort of pushing past personal thresholds. Fortunately, this blog offers a haven for my thoughts, a space where I can articulate ideas freely, without the constraints of formal structure, academic vernacular, and austere style. While I find immense gratification in writing research papers and the thrill of their subsequent publication, I’m also acutely aware that an excess of anything can be detrimental.

Check out these other posts on academic writing:

• Best books on how to write research and dissertation proposals
• Best books on how to write a dissertation
• Best books on how to write a literature review
• Best grant writing books

That brings me to the objective of this post: to share a curated collection of exceptional books that provide insights into writing and publishing research papers. The act of creating and disseminating research papers is paramount for the progression of knowledge in various scientific fields. Moreover, it opens opportunities for wider audiences to engage with your research and offers a platform for receiving peer feedback.

These books cover a broad spectrum of academic writing: from formulating robust research questions, honing writing skills, navigating the maze of the publishing process, responding to reviewers, to understanding intellectual property rights. They provide comprehensive, practical guidance for aspiring academic writers aiming to excel in their craft.

Books on How to Write and Publish Research Papers

Here is a collection of some very good books on how to write and publish research papers:

1. Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded , by Joshua Schimel

“Writing Science” is an insightful manual that offers a comprehensive guide to effective science writing, using the principles of story structure. This approach seeks to engage and retain the reader’s attention while delivering core arguments effectively.

Schimel teaches how to create an overall structure for a paper or proposal, ensuring that each section, paragraph, sentence, and word contributes to the narrative, with an emphasis on creating memorable and engaging stories.

2. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , by Kate L. Turabian et al.

Kate L. Turabian’s book is a classic guide to scientific writing. Despite the changes in research methods over the years, this manual maintains that fundamental aspects remain unchanged.

The book encourages writers to construct an evidence-based argument, cite their sources correctly, and structure their work logically, thereby establishing a strong research question. Turabian’s guidelines are a timeless resource for anyone involved in scientific writing.

3. Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks , by Wendy Laura Belcher

Belcher’s book is a detailed, step-by-step guide to crafting a research paper from start to finish. The approach is systematic and organized, providing daily tasks, templates, and reminders to assist writers in creating strong articles.

The goal is to enhance the confidence of academic writers – from graduate students to faculty members – ensuring they understand the rules of academic publishing and possess the tools needed for success.

4. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper , by Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day

Gastel and Day’s book imparts necessary skills to write and publish a scientific paper effectively. This comprehensive resource touches on every aspect of the process, from writing different sections of a paper to publishing it.

The book also addresses psychological, ethical, and cultural considerations, offering invaluable advice on composing recommendation letters, preparing presentations, editing work, and dealing with the media.

5. The Scientist’s Guide to Writing , by Stephen B. Heard 

Heard’s book emphasizes the need for clarity in scientific writing. It encourages direct engagement with the writer’s attitudes and behaviors during the writing process.

By sharing practical tips on various aspects of scientific writing and encouraging deliberate practice, Heard aims to make scientific writing more accessible and effective.

6. The Craft of Scientific Writing , by Michael Alley

“The Craft of Scientific Writing” is a rich repository of insights gained from Alley’s extensive teaching experience across continents. Rather than offering a formulaic approach, this book brings to light the nuances that distinguish excellent scientific writing, using concrete examples to illustrate these principles.

7. Scientific Writing and Communication , by Angelika H. Hofmann 

Hofmann’s all-inclusive handbook provides guidance on all aspects of scientific communication. Covering everything from scientific writing style to preparing academic presentations and posters, this resource aids scientists in promoting their research and advancing their careers effectively.

8. Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps , by Margaret Cargill, Patrick O’Connor 

Cargill and O’Connor’s book provides clear, systematic guidance for writing compelling scientific papers that increase chances for publication. The guide encourages scientists to apply their analytical skills, synthesis abilities, and effectively communicate their research.

9. Your First Research Paper , by Henry M Burton

Burton’s comprehensive guide demystifies the process of writing a top-quality research paper. It details everything from forming a robust research question and understanding intellectual property rights to referencing, footnote, referencing, footnoting, and the publishing process. This book offers readers the tools they need to craft a high-quality, publishable research paper while adhering to timelines.

10. Write an Impactful Research Paper , by Dr. Martins Zaumanis

Dr. Zaumanis’ book is an inspiring guide for producing impactful academic writing. It outlines the four steps of the “LEAP” process to become a prolific writer and helps researchers craft a compelling message based on their results.

Additionally, it provides advice on responding to reviewers and getting published in top journals. This book also unveils eight unwritten rules of academic publishing to boost citations and enhance academic careers.

11. Scientific Writing and Communication , by Angie Hofmann

Hofmann’s “Scientific Writing and Communication” is a comprehensive handbook covering all aspects of scientific communication. Presented in an easy-to-understand manner, it explains the basics of scientific writing style and applies these principles to various types of scientific documents. It also gives detailed guidance on academic presentations and posters, making it an ideal resource for students, researchers, and scientists across multiple fields.

12. How to Write a Lot , by Paul J. Silvia

Silvia’s “How to Write a Lot” is a fresh take on overcoming barriers to productive academic writing. It addresses common excuses and bad habits, providing practical strategies for becoming a better, more prolific writer.

The book offers guidance on writing, submitting, and revising academic work without sacrificing personal time. This second edition updates the tips and strategies to apply to most academic disciplines and includes a new chapter on writing grant and fellowship proposals.

Final thoughts

As we come to the end of this exploration into books that guide you through writing and publishing research papers, it’s hard not to feel inspired. The journey from an idea to a published paper is fraught with hurdles—be it crafting a compelling argument, mastering the art of citation, or navigating the publication process. I’ve seen in my own research journey how the right resources can turn these challenges into milestones. That’s what these books are: your trusted companions on a journey that, let’s be honest, can sometimes feel like a labyrinth. Whether you’re new to the world of academic writing or you’re a seasoned researcher looking to fine-tune your skills, these books offer a wealth of wisdom that can help you get your research off the ground and into the pages of a reputable journal.

Related Posts

Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

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10 Best Research Books For Qualitative And Quantitative Research

Are you looking for the best research books? Take a look at some of the best books on research methods below.

Research methodology comes in many shapes and forms. Regardless of whether you are interested in qualitative or quantitative research, it is essential to find a book that can help you plan your research project adequately. Research design can vary from hard sciences to social sciences, but data analysis following a case study is usually similar. Therefore, you need a practical guide that can help you complete a research project and finish your research paper.

1. Qualitative Research: A Guide To Design And Implementation, 4th Edition

2. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, 4th edition, 3. the research methods knowledge base, 3rd edition, 4. the craft of research, 5. doing your research project: open up study skills, 5th edition, 6. qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches, 3rd edition, 7. the essential guide to doing your research project, 2nd edition, 8. introducing research methodology: a beginner’s guide to doing a research project, 2nd edition, 9. the sage handbook of qualitative research, 5th edition, 10. research methods in education, 7th edition, the final word on the best research books, what is the difference between quantitative research and qualitative research, how do i figure out which academic journal to publish my research in, further reading.

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When someone talks about qualitative research in academia, they refer to research that focuses on overall concepts and takeaways instead of complex numbers. For those conducting academic research, understanding the basics of this process is critical. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation, by Sharan B. Merriam and Elizabeth J. Tisdell, 4th edition, is one of the best books available because it focuses on action research, mixed methods, online data sources, and some of the latest technology that people can use to complete their projects.

A significant portion of this book focuses on data analysis software packages, which have become critically important in an era where publishing in the best academic journals is critical for every successful researcher. Finally, this book explains topics so that nearly everyone can understand.

• Merriam, Sharan B. (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 368 Pages - 08/24/2015 (Publication Date) - John Wiley & Sons (Publisher)

Suppose you are looking for a book that can teach you the best research methodology. In that case, you will want to check out Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches by John W. Creswell, 4th edition. John Creswell is one of the most well-respected writers in case study research.

As books on how to research go, this one on quantitative and qualitative research methods is a great tool that will help you learn the basics of forming a research project in every field. This book covers philosophical assumptions and research projects, theory and research approaches, and conducts an effective literature review. These elements are also crucial in helping you form a step-by-step guide for your upcoming research project, and this book will teach you the basics of data analysis.

• Research Design
• Creswell, John W. (Author)
• 273 Pages - 04/22/2024 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications, Inc (Publisher)

The first two editions were already solid, but the third edition of The Research Methods Knowledge Base, by William M.K. Trochim and James P. Donnelly, features many updates to quantitative and qualitative research methods, teaching graduate students the basics of data collection before diving into the details for more advanced learners.

One of the significant advantages of this text is that it is a comprehensive tool that can be used for both undergraduate and graduate-level courses. It has a relatively informal style and conversational feel, which means readers will not be intimidated by walls of text. The research methods it teaches are straightforward, applicable, and relevant to anyone looking to complete a research project in the current era.

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The Craft of Research, by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory C. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, covers various research approaches that teach everyone the basics of forming a solid research project. In particular, this book focuses on what to do with the data after it has been collected.

People need to think about how their readers will interpret the structure of the paper, proactively anticipating questions they might have. By answering the reader’s questions in the initial version of the paper, it is easier to hold their attention from start to finish.

Of course, one of the most critical questions that must be asked when writing a research paper is, “so, what? Why does this information matter?” Researchers can keep this in mind while writing the introduction and conclusion of the paper so they will have an easier time constructing a powerful academic manuscript that is more likely to be accepted into the top academic journals.

• Booth, Wayne C. (Author)
• 336 Pages - 10/18/2016 (Publication Date) - University of Chicago Press (Publisher)

Doing Your Research Project: Open Up Study Skills, by Judith Bell, is a must-read for new researchers looking to make their way in academic research. This book is helpful because it teaches people how to conduct a research project using step-by-step advice. A research project can be daunting for new learners because it’s easy to focus on the final project and feel intimidated before taking the first step.

This book is indispensable because it teaches people everything they need to know to develop a research project, draft a hypothesis, carry out the project, and finalize a research paper after conducting detailed data analysis. Furthermore, this text will dive into common mistakes, pitfalls, and obstacles researchers need to overcome. Time is your most valuable resource, and nobody wants to spend time on trials that will not be relevant to the final project.

• Bell, Judith (Author)
• 296 Pages - 05/01/2010 (Publication Date) - Open University Press (Publisher)

Qualitative Inquiry And Research Design: Choose Among Five Approaches, 3rd Edition, Is The Latest In A Line Of Best-Selling Research Books From Creswell. This Book Ties Into People’s Philosophical Underpinnings When Developing A Research Project. It Also Looks At The History Of Various Research Projects, Which Serve As An Example For The Reader.

Overall, there are five traditions in qualitative research; grounded theory, phenomenology, narrative research, case study, and ethnography. Creswell uses an accessible writing style to help the reader understand when to use each of these narratives. Then, he dives into strategies for writing research papers using each of these approaches.

• Used Book in Good Condition
• 472 Pages - 03/14/2012 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications, Inc (Publisher)

The Essential Guide To Doing Your Research Project by Zina O’Leary is geared more toward young learners. As books on how to research, it focuses on how to develop a research project, analyze data, and write up the results. Every stage of the book is clearly explained, with the author specifying why it is essential to carry out that step correctly.

It also focuses on practical tips and tricks that learners can use to successfully carry out their research projects. The book includes helpful chapter summaries, a complete glossary, and boxed definitions for essential terms that should not be overlooked. The author also has a variety of suggestions for further reading, which is helpful for more advanced learners who may want to pick up a text that is a bit more detailed. Finally, the book also comes with access to a companion website. The website includes journal articles, real projects, worksheets, and podcasts.

• O′Leary, Zina (Author)
• 384 Pages - 12/20/2013 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications Ltd (Publisher)

Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to doing a research project, by Uwe Flick is ideal for new researchers. the author guides readers through the fundamentals that underpin a strong research project. He focuses on essential steps, common mistakes, and ways to expedite the research process.

Then, the author dives into some of the most critical skills readers need to have if they want to collect and analyze data properly. he goes into basic organizational tactics that make data easier to interpret, explains how to shorten the analytical process, and dives into real-life quantitative and qualitative research methods. He uses his research as an example, explaining to people how to pull out the essential parts of the research project before writing them up.

• Flick, Uwe (Author)
• 320 Pages - 04/14/2015 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications Ltd (Publisher)

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln focuses on global research. this text teaches readers how to synthesize existing literature, identify current research, and focus on caps that can be filled. the authors gather contributions from some of the most well-renowned researchers, addressing issues in research projects today. this text focuses more on research regarding social justice. therefore, this is better for people in the social sciences.

• Hardcover Book
• 992 Pages - 02/15/2017 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications, Inc (Publisher)

Research Methods in Education, by Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manon, and Keith Morrison, is essential for students and professional researchers who want to learn how to create a comprehensive research project. It’s broken up into helpful chapters wrapped up by a convenient summary at the end, explaining to readers how to hit the high points.

Research Methods in Education also comes with a helpful companion website that contains PowerPoint slides for every chapter. This book can be read independently and discussed with a classroom full of students. The book has been written at a level that is accessible even to high school students, but the basics can be a helpful review for graduate researchers.

• Cohen, Louis (Author)
• 944 Pages - 10/27/2017 (Publication Date) - Routledge (Publisher)

Academic research comes in many shapes and forms, with qualitative and quantitative research having high points; however, the basics are the same across all fields. Researchers need to learn how to develop a hypothesis, put together a research methodology, collect their data, interpret it, and write up their findings.

It can be helpful to use the books about research above to refine your research methods . Each book focuses on a slightly different facet of academic research, so readers need to find the right book to meet their needs. With a substantial text, readers can avoid common mistakes, follow in the footsteps of successful researchers, and increase their chances of writing a solid research paper for school or getting their paper accepted into an academic journal.

Books About Research FAQs

Quantitative research focuses more on numbers and statistics. This type of research is more common in hard sciences such as biology, chemistry, and physics.

Qualitative research focuses more on overall meanings and concepts. This type of research is more common in social sciences such as anthropology, archaeology, and research topics focusing on social justice.

It would help compare prior articles in that academic journal to the article you have written. Most academic journals focus on a specific field, and you need to submit your article to a publication that shares research articles similar to your own. Be sure to consider the prestige of the journal before submitting your paper.

If you enjoyed this round-up of the best research books, you might also like our top 11 essay writing tips for students . 

You might also find our guide on essay topics for students  helpful. 

Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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The Best Books of 2024 (So Far)

This list is updated monthly with new “best of the year” worthy titles.

The year may still be young, but 2024 has already brought a treasure trove of surprising new books. Multiple celebrated first-time authors have returned with highly anticipated, ambitious follow-up novels . Memoir and reportage are skillfully blended together for a collection of essays on the climate crises. A former Village Voice journalist delivers a vibrant oral history of the beloved alternative weekly. And we’d be remiss not to mention a brilliant debut novel that deftly brings humanity and humor to existential dread. Here are the titles that we already can’t stop thinking about.

Titles are listed by U.S. release date.

Headshot , by Rita Bullwinkel

In a shabby gym in Reno, Nevada, teenage girls face off in a youth boxing tournament under a shifting ray of daylight that “fills the whole space with a dull, dusty brightness” and surrounded by a sparse crowd of mostly uninterested coaches and parents. The novel enters deep into the girls’ minds as they assess one another’s weaknesses and coax themselves through the rounds, which are described in brutal, bloody detail. Each fighter has her own source of competitive energy, but they’re all realistically ambivalent, too — unsure about why, exactly, they’re drawn to a sport that gives them so little for their trouble. Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel is as tense and disciplined as its characters, and she has a gift for capturing the way their minds wander far from the ring and back again: One girl counts off the digits of pi, while another obsesses over a death she witnessed as a lifeguard. There’s a mesmerizing sense of limitlessness to the narrative, which roams far into the future of these fighters even as they’re absorbing hits in the ring. — Emma Alpern

Lessons for Survival , by Emily Raboteau

Raboteau emerged on the scene some two decades ago as a writer of sharp, incisive fiction that mapped the contours of identity and race. In recent years, she has become a literary voice of consciousness about the ongoing climate crisis. Across a series of essays, book reviews, and conversations, Raboteau has charted the progression of the crisis, our shared culpability, and our responsibility to develop practical solutions. Lessons for Survival is, in many ways, a culmination and continuation of this work. Raboteau travels locally and abroad to capture stories about the impact of the environmental crisis, and the resilience of communities that find themselves on the front lines. She also writes authentically — her prose seamlessly melds slang and heightened language — about her own experiences as a Black mother, whose identity has shaped her understanding of these issues. This is scintillating work, an essential primer for our times. — Tope Folarin

The grand irony of this juncture in history is that at the very moment when the problems we’re facing — climate change, economic inequality, cross-border violence — require global solutions, our societies have become more atomized than ever. This is the case both within various societies, in which individual concerns increasingly trump collective interests, and between societies, whereby individual countries pursue their objectives at the expense of global cooperation. In their new book, Solidarity: The Past, Present and Future of a World-Changing Idea , Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor offer an essential antidote: a renewed commitment to solidarity. Their book is ambitious and comprehensive. It traces the evolving meaning of solidarity from ancient Rome through the Black Lives Matter movement and identifies different kinds of solidarity, how they arise, and how effective they are in forming and maintaining social bonds. They persuasively argue that in order to create a more “egalitarian world,” we must learn to cultivate and practice the kind of solidarity that “chang[es] the social order toward one that is both freer and more just.” — T.F.

Help Wanted , by Adelle Waldman

Set at a big-box store in upstate New York, Help Wanted recalls Mike White’s Enlightene d in its textured portrayal of how small humiliations and injustices at work inevitably boil over into righteous rage. It’s a novel that lingers in the imagination, by which I mean, after you read it you’ll think of it every time you shop at Target, forever. — Emily Gould

➽ Read Emily Gould’s interview with Help Wanted author Adelle Waldman on The Cut .

Stranger , by Emily Hunt

Emily Hunt’s second book of poems considers real intimacy mediated by apps. In “Company,” a long poem originally published as a chapbook, the speaker works for a flower delivery startup, gently pulling roots from soil, culling, clipping, and handing off arrangements. These moments are sensorily rich, slotted into 15-minute assembly-line shifts, and short lines. In “Emily,” Hunt uses messages from Tinder as her source material, not to mock (or not only to mock) the senders or the stilted situation of meeting online, but to construct a self in relief, as seen and spoken to by strangers. A funny and surprising interaction with dailiness, including our phones — the hardware and the relationships maintained through them — and whatever else is still tactile. — Maddie Crum

Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm, by Emmeline Clein

Emmeline Clein’s Dead Weight seems destined to fundamentally reshape how we think and write about the subject of eating disorders. What separates Clein’s book from others on the topic is her commitment to treating the sufferers of eating disorders with the kind of dignity that clinicians tend to withhold. She writes as an insider, telling both her personal story and sharing the stories of her “sisters,” which range from Tumblr accounts to clinical studies co-authored by their subjects. Throughout, she refrains from including the graphic details that have historically plagued books about the subject. “Too many people I love have misread a memoir as a manual,” she writes. The book she writes instead confronts the complicated entanglement between eating disorders, race, capitalism, and the ongoing erosion of social safety nets. Stereotypes about eating disorders commonly portray the illness as one rooted in control. Dead Weight not only exposes how little control patients have had over their own narratives and bodies, it returns the narrative to those who have suffered from the disease. This is a moving, brilliant, and important book. — Isle McElroy

The Freaks Came Out to Write , by Tricia Romano

If you were reading The Village Voice in the 1990s, as I was, it wasn’t as good as it used to be. That was also true ten years later, and 20 years before, and frankly it was probably what people started saying upon reading issue No. 2 in 1955. What the Voice was, inarguably, was shaggy, sometimes under-edited, alternately vigorous and undisciplined and brilliant and exhausting and fun. The infighting in its pages and in its newsroom was relentless, amped up by the very aggressiveness that made its reporters and editors able to do what they did. You’ll encounter more than one office fistfight in The Freaks Came Out to Write , this oral history by Tricia Romano, who worked there at the very end of its life. She got a huge number of Voice survivors to talk, including almost every living person who played a major role in this beloved, irritating paper’s life, and good archival interviews fill in the gaps. If you read the Voice in its glory days (whenever those were!) you’ll miss it terribly by the end of this book; if you weren’t there, you will be amazed that such a thing not only existed but, for a while, flourished. — Christopher Bonanos

Wandering Stars , by Tommy Orange

Orange’s Pulitzer-finalist debut, 2018’s There There , is a tightly constructed, polyphonic book that ends with a gunshot at a powwow. His follow-up, which shares the first one’s perspective-hopping structure (and several of its characters), is a different beast, an introspective novel about addiction and adolescence. The story begins in the 1860s, when a young Cheyenne man becomes an early subject in the U.S. government’s attempts to assimilate Native Americans. The consequences of this flurry of violence and imprisonment will reverberate through generations of his family, eventually landing in present-day Oakland, California, where three young brothers live with their grandmother and her sister. The oldest brother, Orvil, was shot at There There ’s powwow, and even though he survived, the heaviness of that day is weighing on him and his family. Prescribed opioids for the pain, he finds that — like several of his ancestors, though he has no way of knowing that — he likes the sense of removal they give him. Orange’s novel is unusually curious and gentle in its treatment of addiction; he lets his characters puzzle out why they’re drawn to intoxication, managing to balance a lack of judgment with an understanding of the danger they’re in. — E.A.

➽ Read Emma Alpern’s full review of Wandering Stars .

Come and Get It , by Kiley Reid

In Come and Get It , the second novel from the breakout author of Such a Fun Age , the University of Arkansas serves as the backdrop for Kylie Reid’s assessment of race, class, and social hierarchy on a college campus. Over the course of a semester that shifts between the perspectives of Millie, a meek yet dutiful R.A., Kennedy, a shy transfer student with a traumatic secret, and Agatha, a visiting professor out of her depths, the primary characters are forced to grapple with the heady concepts of desire, privilege, and the rules of social conduct in an environment where the the game is rigged and fairness is reserved for a select few. Light on plot and heavy on character development and social commentary, Come and Get It is the kind of book you put down and immediately want to discuss . But fair warning: If you ever lived in a college dorm in the U.S., this book might inflict a non-negligible amount of PTSD. — Anusha Praturu

Martyr! , by Kaveh Akbar

In Poet Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel, Cyrus Shams is a nexus of dissonant identities: He’s a 20-something Iranian-American, a straight-passing queer, a recovering addict, a depressive insomniac, and a writer who’s recently gotten some unflattering feedback. He’s also grieving his parents, who he considers to have died meaninglessly, his mother on a passenger flight out of Tehran that was accidentally shot down by the U.S. military (a real event that occurred in 1988), his father “anonymous[ly] after spending decades cleaning chicken shit on some corporate farm.” Martyr! traces Cyrus’s obsession with the idea of dying with a purpose, disrupting linear time and moving miraculously between worlds and perspectives. Sometimes, the dead speak for themselves; we hear from Cyrus’s mother and his uncle, who recounts his life as a soldier in the Iran-Iraq war. The book also shines with humor, including an imagined conversation between Cyrus’s mother and Lisa Simpson. Akbar’s prose courses with lyrical intelligence and offers an interrogation of whose pain matters — and what it means to live and die meaningfully — that is as politically urgent as it is deeply alive. — Jasmine Vojdani

The Rebel’s Clinic , by Adam Shatz

In these chaotic times, Franz Fanon’s work is constantly and enthusiastically referenced. A new generation of activists — as many before them — has repurposed Fanon’s words to describe our current travails, and to propose how we might move forward. Fanon persists in the activist imagination as a kind of radical soothsayer, an intellectual who can speak authoritatively about our moment because of his identity as a Black man and colonial subject who personally experienced the barbarity of a colonizing power. In The Rebel’s Clinic , Adam Shatz complicates our understanding of Fanon’s life and work, and persuasively conjures the human being who wrote the words that have inspired so many. Among Shatz’s most important interventions is to highlight Fanon’s vocation as a doctor who “treated the torturers by day and the tortured at night.” Shatz’s book is a chronicle of a man who, because of his identity and gifts, was obliged to constantly reconcile opposing ideas and ways of being. — T.F.

• best of 2024
• vulture lists
• tommy orange
• wandering stars
• help wanted
• adelle waldman
• the freaks came out to write

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The best new science fiction books of May 2024

A new Stephen King short story collection, an Ursula K. Le Guin reissue and a celebration of cyberpunk featuring writing from Philip K. Dick and Cory Doctorow are among the new science fiction titles published this month

By Alison Flood

A new short story collection from Stephen King, You Like It Darker, is out in May

Shane Leonard

Every month, I trawl through publishers’ catalogues so I can tell you about the new science fiction being released. And every month, I’m disappointed to see so much more fantasy on publishers’ lists than sci-fi. I know it’s a response to the huge boom in readers of what’s been dubbed “ romantasy ”, and I’m not knocking it – I love that sort of book too. But it would be great to see more good, hard, mind-expanding sci-fi in the offing as well.

In the meantime, there is definitely enough for us sci-fi fans to sink our teeth into this month, whether it’s a reissue of classic writing from Ursula K. Le Guin, some new speculative short stories from Stephen King or murder in space from Victor Manibo and S. A. Barnes.

Last month, I tipped Douglas Preston’s Extinction and Sofia Samatar’s The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain as books I was looking forward to. I can report that they were both excellent: Extinction was a lot of good, clean, Jurassic Park -tinged fun, while Samatar’s offering was a beautiful and thought-provoking look at life on a generation ship.

The Language of the Night: Essays on writing, science fiction, and fantasy by Ursula K. Le Guin

There are few sci-fi and fantasy writers more brilliant (and revered) than Ursula K. Le Guin. This reissue of her first full-length collection of essays features a new introduction from Hugo and Nebula award-winner Ken Liu and covers the writing of The Left Hand of Darkness and A Wizard of Earthsea , as well as her advocacy for sci-fi and fantasy as legitimate literary mediums. I’ve read some of these essays but not all, and I won’t be missing this collection.

Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

This isn’t science fiction, not quite, but it is one of the best and most important books I have read for some time. It sees Jacobsen lay out, minute by minute, what would happen if an intercontinental ballistic missile hit Washington DC. How would the US react? What, exactly, happens if deterrence fails? Jacobsen has spoken to dozens of military experts to put together what her publisher calls a “non-fiction thriller”, and what I call the scariest book I have possibly ever read (and I’m a Stephen King fan; see below). We’re currently reading it at the New Scientist Book Club, and you can sign up to join us here .

Read an extract from Nuclear War: A scenario by Annie Jacobsen

In this terrifying extract from Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario, the author lays out what would happen in the first seconds after a nuclear missile hits the Pentagon

The Big Book of Cyberpunk (Vol 1 & 2)

Forty years ago, William Gibson published Neuromancer . Since then, it has entranced millions of readers right from its unforgettable opening line: “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel…”. Neuromancer gave us the literary genre that is cyberpunk, and we can now welcome a huge, two-volume anthology celebrating cyberpunk’s best stories, by writers from Cory Doctorow to Justina Robson, and from Samuel R. Delaney to Philip K. Dick. I have both glorious-sounding volumes, brought together by anthologist Jared Shurin, on my desk (using up most of the space on it), and I am looking forward to dipping in.

You Like It Darker by Stephen King

You could categorise Stephen King as a horror writer. I see him as an expert chronicler of the dark side of small-town America, and from The Tommyknockers and its aliens to Under the Dome with its literally divisive trope, he frequently slides into sci-fi. Even the horror at the heart of It is some sort of cosmic hideousness. He is one of my favourite writers, and You Like It Darker is a new collection of short stories that moves from “the folds in reality where anything can happen” to a “psychic flash” that upends dozens of lives. There’s a sequel to Cujo , and a look at “corners of the universe best left unexplored”. I’ve read the first story so far, and I can confirm there is plenty for us sci-fi fans here.

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

Not sci-fi, but fiction about science – and from one of the UK’s most exciting writers (if you haven’t read The Essex Serpent yet, you’re in for a treat). This time, Perry tells the story of Thomas Hart, a columnist on the Essex Chronicle who becomes a passionate amateur astronomer as the comet Hale-Bopp approaches in 1997. Our sci-fi columnist Emily Wilson is reviewing it for New Scientist ’s 11 May issue, and she has given it a vigorous thumbs up (“a beautiful, compassionate and memorable book,” she writes in a sneak preview just for you guys).

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

Dr Ophelia Bray is a psychologist and expert in the study of Eckhart-Reiser syndrome, a fictional condition that affects space travellers in terrible ways. She’s sent to help a small crew whose colleague recently died, but as they begin life on an abandoned planet, she realises that her charges are hiding something. And then the pilot is murdered… Horror in space? Mysterious planets? I’m up for that.

In Hey, Zoey, the protagonist finds an animatronic sex doll hidden in her garage

Shutterstock / FOTOGRIN

Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan

Hot on the heels of Sierra Greer’s story about a sex robot wondering what it means to be human in Annie Bot , the acclaimed young adult and children’s author Sarah Crossan has ventured into similar territory. In Hey, Zoey , Dolores finds an animatronic sex doll hidden in her garage and assumes it belongs to her husband David. She takes no action – but then Dolores and Zoey begin to talk, and Dolores’s life changes.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

Davi has tried to take down the Dark Lord before, rallying humanity and making the final charge – as you do. But the time loop she is stuck in always defeats her, and she loses the battle in the end. This time around, Davi decides that the best thing to do is to become the Dark Lord herself. You could argue that this is fantasy, but it has a time loop, so I’m going to count it as sci-fi. It sounds fun and lighthearted: quotes from early readers are along the lines of “A darkly comic delight”, and we could all use a bit of that these days.

Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo

It’s 2089, and there’s an old murder hanging over the clientele of Space Habitat Altaire, a luxury space hotel, while an “unforeseen threat” is also brewing in the service corridors. A thriller in space? Sounds excellent – and I’m keen to see if Manibo makes use of the latest research into the angle at which blood might travel following violence in space, as reported on by our New Scientist humour columnist Marc Abrahams recently.

The best new science fiction books of March 2024

With a new Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mars-set romance from Natasha Pulley and a high-concept thriller from Stuart Turton due to hit shelves, there is plenty of great new science fiction to be reading in March

In Our Stars by Jack Campbell

Part of the Doomed Earth series, this follows Lieutenant Selene Genji, who has been genetically engineered with partly alien DNA and has “one last chance to save the Earth from destruction”. Beautifully retro cover for this space adventure – not to judge a book in this way, of course…

The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer

Two sets of people have had their minds uploaded into a quantum computer in the Ontario of 2059. Astronauts preparing for the world’s first interstellar voyage form one group; the other contains convicted murderers, sentenced to a virtual-reality prison. Naturally, disaster strikes, and, yup, they must work together to save Earth from destruction. Originally released as an Audible Original with Brendan Fraser as lead narrator, this is the first print edition of the Hugo and Nebula award-winning Sawyer’s 26 th novel.

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

Just in case you still haven’t read it, Justin Cronin’s gloriously dreamy novel The Ferryman , set on an apparently utopian island where things aren’t quite as they seem, is out in paperback this month. It was the first pick for the New Scientist Book Club, and it is a mind-bending, dreamy stunner of a read. Go try it – and sign up for the Book Club in the meantime!

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17 New Books Coming in May

New novels from R.O. Kwon, Kevin Kwan and Miranda July; a reappraisal of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; memoirs from Brittney Griner and Kathleen Hanna — and more.

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Chop Fry Watch Learn , by Michelle T. King

Once called “the Julia Child of Chinese cooking,” Fu Pei-Mei taught generations of Taiwanese people to cook through her long-running TV show and many cookbooks. King presents not just a biography of an indomitable woman, but a portrait of how cultures eat.

Norton, May 7

Coming Home , by Brittney Griner and Michelle Burford

In February 2022, Griner — arriving in Russia to play basketball in the off-season — was detained by Russian authorities, who claimed she had hash oil in her luggage. The W.N.B.A. star spent 10 months in a women’s penal colony before she was freed in a prisoner swap; this is the story of her ordeal.

Knopf, May 7

Free and Equal , by Daniel Chandler

If liberal democracy is to survive as a form of government, it needs a complete rethink. So argues Chandler, a British economist and philosopher, in this rousing homage to the political philosopher John Rawls, whose “realistic utopia,” the book contends, provides a blueprint for a society premised on both individual freedom and true equality.

Shanghailanders , by Juli Min

Min’s debut novel is a complicated family story, told in reverse. The novel opens in 2040 with a family simmering with secrets and tensions, and then the story works its way backward to 2014, revealing how each person got to where they are.

Spiegel & Grau, May 7

Whale Fall , by Elizabeth O’Connor

It’s 1938, and 18-year-old Manod has never known a life outside the harsh, sparsely populated confines of her remote and rocky home off the coast of Wales — until a pair of self-styled English ethnographers arrive to both document and disrupt the island’s residents.

Pantheon, May 7

All Fours , by Miranda July

How to survive the strains of middle-age marriage? The unnamed heroine of July’s comic novel plans a cross-country road trip, only to stop 30 minutes from home. There she lavishly redecorates a motel room and begins an odd, passionate but platonic affair with a younger man who works at a rental-car agency.

Riverhead, May 14

Another Word for Love , by Carvell Wallace

Wallace, an award-winning journalist, turns a thoughtful lens on his own grapplings with sexuality, intermittent homelessness and life as the son of a Black single mother fighting to stay afloat. But bleakness is not the operative mode of this debut memoir; the book turns as often toward joy and self-discovery as it does hardship.

MCD, May 14

Challenger , by Adam Higginbotham

The Challenger space shuttle disaster — in which millions of people watched, in real time, as the shuttle exploded, killing all on board — was a pivotal moment for American culture, and certainly its space program. Higginbotham, the author of “Midnight in Chernobyl,” tells the 1986 story in granular detail, using vivid reporting and new archival research to describe a true-life thriller with all-too-real consequences.

Avid Reader Press, May 14

Blue Ruin , by Hari Kunzru

A heady novelist with the instincts of a thriller writer, Kunzru brings his singular mix of dread and intrigue to his latest fiction, an intricate tale of artistic creation, greed and exploitation set in upstate New York under the specter of Covid.

Knopf, May 14

Fat Leonard , by Craig Whitlock

This is the story of a Malaysian high school dropout who bribed and extorted U.S. Navy personnel with gifts, favors and sex to make a steady profit as a military contractor servicing American ships in East Asia ports for inflated prices. As Whitlock, an investigative journalist for The Washington Post, makes clear, the bigger problem is that so many in the Navy decided to look the other way.

Simon & Schuster, May 14

Rebel Girl , by Kathleen Hanna

As the fiery front woman of the seminal alt-punk band Bikini Kill and later Le Tigre, Hanna was foundational to the ’90s riot-grrrl movement; she also famously inspired the title of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Her wide-ranging memoir offers a snapshot of that era, as well as the challenging childhood that shaped her.

Ecco, May 14

Skies of Thunder , by Caroline Alexander

When the Japanese military took control of a crucial road near the border of Burma in 1942, the Allies were left with no choice but to transport supplies to China by air over a dangerous stretch of the Himalayas. As the conflict drags on, Alexander matches immersive descriptions of perilous flights through blizzards and monsoons with the uneasy negotiations between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek.

Viking, May 14

Exhibit , by R.O. Kwon

A photographer begins a clandestine relationship with an injured ballet dancer in Kwon’s second novel, which she recently described as “shot through with physical longing, queer lust and kink.”

Riverhead, May 21

Lies and Weddings , by Kevin Kwan

The author of “Crazy Rich Asians” returns with another beach-ready confection starring pampered people in designer clothing behaving badly — this time at a decadent Hawaiian wedding where secrets erupt with the force and heat of lava.

Doubleday, May 21

Once Upon a Time , by Elizabeth Beller

What do we know about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, aside from the fact that she was married to John F. Kennedy Jr.? Twenty-five years after their death in a plane crash, Beller asks this question, then fills in the blanks with a thorough examination of a life cut short.

Gallery, May 21

Wait , by Gabriella Burnham

In this coming-of-age novel, a pair of sisters reunite at their home on Nantucket, Mass., after their mother is deported to Brazil.

One World, May 21

The Editor , by Sara B. Franklin

A noted food journalist pays tribute to a mentor and role model — the former Knopf editor Judith Jones, who, over a six-decade career, published Julia Child, James Beard, John Updike and Sylvia Plath, and was instrumental in seeing Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” translated into English.

Atria, May 28

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The complicated, generous life  of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

“Real Americans,” a new novel by Rachel Khong , follows three generations of Chinese Americans as they all fight for self-determination in their own way .

“The Chocolate War,” published 50 years ago, became one of the most challenged books in the United States. Its author, Robert Cormier, spent years fighting attempts to ban it .

Joan Didion’s distinctive prose and sharp eye were tuned to an outsider’s frequency, telling us about ourselves in essays that are almost reflexively skeptical. Here are her essential works .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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