--Know the leading refereed journals in your field. You can identify them at the library, check their indexes and follow their current issues to have a better sense of the on-going as well as historically critical debates.

--Build a bibliography of essential works for yourself over the years. Organise your library in such a way that you know where your references may lie for specific topics. Keep diaries and notes for the new things you read.

--Regularly follow new publications (monographs and edited volumes) in your field. Do not buy a book, unless you know you will use it more than twice. You can always borrow, read, take notes and return, and this will not cost you.

--Follow the work of a select number of authors carefully. If they speak to your needs, digest everything they wrote, and let them guide you through the field.

--Before you start writing your piece, identify your core idea/problematique. Have a sense of what you wish to add to the debate, who your opponents are, what would be the literature that supports your case, and what would be the basis/foundation upon which you will build your case.

--Write sections, go through several drafts, sleep over what you wrote, and compare it with other work written on the topic. Never be happy with what you wrote until the whole of the work feels complete.

--Be clear about your theoretical premises and assumptions, and be even clearer about your historical/field-work cases. This is the Weberian ‘honesty to take sides’. You will need to defend your case and always be prepared for the defense. Do not claim to cover all, only claim to cover what you can comfortably assert. The rest has to remain suggestive.

--Cite, quote, cover the relevant and up-to-date literature well. This is why there is a special place allocated for footnotes/endnotes, and that is where you display your expertise, although within limits. Observe the writing styles of your favorite authors, and follow course.

--Choose the journal/venue to submit your work very carefully. The review process will take months and it will, in almost all cases, require revisions. Be prepared for criticism, as it is an essential part of the game.

--If no one publishes your work at this stage, think of it as a draft of an ongoing project. Revisit it at a later date. Never throw away work that is already done, instead, archieve it.

--Having a last word on an issue is a cure that no wise man (or women) would wish for. Refrain in your claims, and do not hide behind historical accounts to justify your assumptions. History is there to be read and understood, it does not speak in and of itself.