1、TIPS FOR JOURNAL SUCCESS,EDITOR TRAINING PROGRAM,Daniel McGowan, PhD Scientific Director Edanz Group Ltd,Why do researchers need to publish?,Scientists and clinicians publish their research findings and opinions to share them with the international research community Publication success is linked to
2、 funding success and career advancement Many PhD programmes require candidates to achieve a set number of peer-reviewed publications before the degree can be conferred,Publish or perish,Funding Bodies,Scientists / Clinicians,Grant Writing,Journal Publication,Regularly publishing research findings en
3、sures ongoing grant support for new research,Comparison of the growth in the numbers of journal submissions with the growth in the number of journals,How to identify hot topics,Journal editors should want science that pushes new boundaries and opens up new fields of research Look for clues to antici
4、pate the next big thing Read the literature broadly, particularly top-tier journals like Nature, Science and Cell, to identify fashionable areas of research and new problems Highlights and news articles Look for controversies and unexplained findings these are fertile ground for scientific enquiry,H
5、ow to identify hot topics,Perform keyword database searches to determine volume and impact of recent research in a given area Attend international meetings for an awareness of new directions and developments However, greater interest means greater competition among journal editors for the most inter
6、esting new research Thus, identify the main “movers” in the field and pursue them actively http:/,What should journal editors want,Good quality science! Robust to peer review Well designed and executed original (novel!) research Findings of interest to the journals readership Work in an active resea
7、rch area (=citations!) Work that advances the field in some way Compliance with ethical regulations Clear, concise writing that conveys results and their implications,Study design,A good study should: Have a hypothesis or research question Use appropriate methods and controls Have a large enough sam
8、ple size Use appropriate statistical tests Have no investigator or patient bias Comply with ethical requirements Be registered (clinical studies) www.ich.org/LOB/media,Publication types,Full-length papers Rapid communications Short communications Letters to the editor Case reports Technical notes La
9、boratory notes Methods Editorials Opinion pieces Review articles (often highly cited),Clearly set out the guidelines and requirements for each publication type in your journals Guide for Authors,Special Issues,Your chance to publish a collection of articles on “the state” of a given field Suitable f
10、or fields that have recently seen a large amount of activity, with exciting new findings emerging around the same time Need to be in touch with the researchers and know what stage their work is at Consider inviting a guest editorial from a senior researcher in the field Can lead to high citations an
11、d link your journal to that field,Special Issues,For example, Nature publishes Insights, Outlooks, Collections and Technology features,12 September 2007 Vol. 449, No. 7159Supplement produced with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Foundation for the NIH, TDR, Burroughs
12、 Wellcome Fund and MRC for Global Health,Ethics: good practice,Unethical behaviour by researchers can damage your journals reputation Examples of unethical behaviour: Multiple submissions Redundant publications Plagiarism Data fabrication and falsification Improper use of human subjects and animals
13、in research Improper author contribution,Appointing reviewers,Peer review exists to ensure that a paper is as scientifically robust and complete as possible before joining the collective knowledge as part of the literature Reviewers must be objective and independent as well as being experts in the f
14、ield Consider requested inclusions and exclusions carefully and appoint a balance of appropriate experts Inconsistencies among reports must be considered on the basis of possible biases: if in doubt, appoint more reviewers Consider a double-blind review process,Well written papers attract readers an
15、d the submission of additional well written papers They will also be cited more than papers that are too difficult to read Poorly written papers are a major source of frustration for peer reviewers, who might turn down future requests to review a paper from journal if sent poorly written work,Why is
16、 good writing important?,Elements of good scientific writing,Clarity Conciseness Correctness (accuracy),Good writing possesses the following three “C”s:,The key is to be as brief and specific as possible without omitting essential details,Traps to avoid,Repetition Redundancy Ambiguity Inconsistency
17、Spelling and grammatical errors Insufficient detail/vagueness,Good writing avoids the following traps:,These are common annoyances for peer reviewers and readers,Hyphens,Hyphenation is used to join ordinarily separate words into compound words Incorrect use of compound adjectives can lead to ambigui
18、ty “calcium-induced calcium release” has a different meaning from “calcium induced calcium release”,Hyphens,“Glutamate receptors mediated synaptic plasticity” Tells the reader that Glu receptors are involved in the development of synaptic plasticity “Glutamate receptor-mediated synaptic plasticity”
19、Identifies synaptic plasticity involving Glu receptors as the subject of the sentence NB/ nouns used within compound adjectives to modify another noun should be used in the singular form,That/which,“Data were normalised to the housekeeping gene actin, which was used as an internal reference” Here, t
20、he “which” refers to actin, which is therefore the subject of the following clause “Data were normalised to the internal reference housekeeping gene actin, revealing increases in the levels of” To refer to the analyzed data in a subsequent clause, “which revealed” would be inappropriate and introduc
21、e an ambiguity,Making comparisons,Frequently made in the results sections of papers Compare “like” with “like” Do not leave the reader to make an assumption “Expression levels of p53 in smokers were compared with non-smokers” should actually be “Expression levels of p53 in smokers were compared with
22、 those in non-smokers”,Keep it simple!,The use of simple language is often clearer, more precise and more concise than using more complex terms Use as few words as possible Delete superfluous words Avoid circular sentences, redundancies and repetition “In order to examine differences in protein leve
23、ls, lysates were subjected to 10% SDS-PAGE and Western blotting using an anti-NR1 antibody, to observe the effects of stimulation on receptor trafficking”,Phrase checks,What can you do to check if a certain phrase is correct or if it might be worded better? Get help from a colleague Google (http:/)
24、Google Scholar (http:/) Exemplar (http:/),Conclusions,The key to improving your journals impact factor and expanding its readership: Publish studies that follow the rules for SUCCESS,Study design appropriate Unpublished elsewhere (novel) Clear, concise, accurate writing Compliance with author guidelines Ethics complied with Statistics appropriate Significance explained,http:/,
