John Dent has published various papers and articles in academic books, journals and popular magazines in the past forty-five years. He collaborated with Rory McDonald to produce the Scottish Borders Heritage series of popular books on historic themes relating to that part of south-east Scotland and developed the complementary website. In 2010 John published
The Iron Age in East Yorkshire, which described his own perception of how the Yorkshire Wolds had developed in the later prehistoric period. In tandem with the Wetwang Slack publication project with Bradford University, he is currently researching the social history of archaeological investigations in that part of Yorkshire.