Publish tab is missing

Does the publish tab show up? If it does, the reason it wasn't showing up was likely because the file in the editor did not have the extension *.m. The publish tab doesn't show up for *.txt, *.c, *.cpp etc. just *.m

If it doesn't show up with that, something has corrupter your preferences directory. Save the following and run it, it will clear this directory and will fix the issue:

function moveprefdir(restart)
%MOVEPREFDIR - Rename preferences directory and optionally restart MATLAB
%
% MOVEPREFDIR renames the current prefdir to [current_name date_time] 
%    and restarts MATLAB if you wish.  Restarting MATLAB is required
%    to regenerate preferences.
%
%Usage: MOVEPREFDIR
%       MOVEPREFDIR(restart)
%
%Inputs:
%   -restart: optional, logical scalar:
%                Do you want to restart MATLAB automatically?
%                {default: prompt user}
%
%Outputs:
%   -No outputs but gives you a message box with details
%
%See also: prefdir movefile
%
%
%Sean de Wolski - Copyright, The MathWorks, Inc 12/10/2012
%
      %Error Checking and defaults:
      assert(any(nargin==[0 1]),'One or Zero inputs expected');
      if nargin == 1;
          assert(isscalar(restart) && islogical(restart),'If supplied, restart is supposed to be logical scalar');
          prompt = false;
      else
          prompt = true;
      end
      %Move the preferences directory:
      old_prefdir = prefdir;
      new_prefdir = [prefdir, datestr(now,'ddmm_hhMM')];
      [status, msg] = movefile(old_prefdir,new_prefdir);
      %Display results:
      if status
          h = msgbox(sprintf('Old PREFDIR: %s renamed to %s',old_prefdir,new_prefdir),'Move Successful','modal');
          waitfor(h);
      else
          errordlg(msg,'Move Failed','modal');
          return;
      end
      %Prompt for restarting:
      if prompt
          choice  = questdlg(sprintf('Restarting MATLAB is required to regenerate Prefences\nDo you want to restart MATLAB now?'),'Restart?','Yes!','No','Yes!');
          restart = strcmp(choice,'Yes!');
      end
      %Restarting:
      if restart
          system('matlab &'); %Open new ML session
          exit;               %Leave this one
      end
end