Take-Home Messages

This book is running in a long beta. Revisions are currently underway. Check back in January 2025 for updated content.

Now that you’ve hopefully chosen a journal or at least narrowed your selection, it’s time to think about your main messaging. You may think of this message as your take-home message, or the central claim(s) of your research argument. It is important to note that your research should argue for a position. This position may emphasize why your overall research is important or relevant or why your principal findings are applicable or noteworthy. Whatever your argument or main message is, it should surface throughout your article—from beginning to end.

Thus, take-home messages are really the central messages or ideas you want the reader, every reader, to grasp at the time they have finished reading the article. You can form a take-home message or messages by transforming one or more primary findings from your research into a concept or idea. Your take-home message may even be theory-driven so that your work contributes theoretically to the current state-of-the-art.

Before you move on to begin writing, what is the message that you want to convey throughout your article? How can you answer the question, “So What?” What is your contribution and how does your data support your central message?