Publishing question

[katiegud]

While working on my literature review I came up with an idea that I thought might be publishable. Part of it would be necessary to write up, but to complete the article I would have to do some additional work that would not end up in my PhD dissertation. I emailed an editor to see if he was interested, and he said that I should submit it when I'm finished. 

So, do I talk to my supervisors about this now and risk them telling me not to take the time out of PhD work to finish the article? Or do I just write the article quietly on the side and not tell them about it until I'm finished? I'm in the UK, so I also asked on TSR, but I'm not sure if that makes a difference. How involved are supervisors in publishing? If it would be a solo article by me do they really need to be involved?

[lyonessrampant]

All of my publications to this point have been completed independently.  I wrote up the manuscript, got some feedback, submitted it, revised, and published.  I didn't hide that I was doing this work, but I didn't really volunteer it either.  As long as you meet the expected deadlines for the dissertation, I don't see why you working on a side project would be a problem.  Of course, we're in different fields, so things might be different for you.

[katiegud]

Thanks for the input! I wouldn't hide it from them certainly, but I don't want them to think I'm slacking on my required work. This would be my first publication (obviously), so I'm just trying to learn the process.

[lewin]

In my field if a student graduated with their PhD dissertation finished and no other publications they would not get a job. You need these side pubs to have a good CV. But I would never sneak one past my advisor; they're all things that we worked on together even when I was the lead. Is this a possibility? As a junior person you might be overemphasizing your chances of a solo publication and a more senior collaborator could do wonders. (I don't know your field and how authorship usually goes...)