1、Scientific writing and presentation,Prof. Mark Bartlam College of Life Sciences, Nankai University E-mail: Tel: 23502351,Course outline,Lecture 9+10: How to publish a paper: Choosing the right journal for your paper; Impact factors, immediacy factors and citations; How a scientific journal works; T
2、he roles of the editor and referees; Submitting your paper; Peer review: how to respond to referees.,How to publish a paper?,Choosing the right journal for your paper: Audience Format of your paper - regular paper, brief communication, technical note, review article.,Where to publish?,Essential to i
3、dentify the “right” journal. Some journals/editors seem to work on a geographic basis. Journals have different scientific impact.,Where to publish?,Acceptance rate and time to publication can be very different: How many publications/year or “on acceptance”? How many papers does the Editor have in ha
4、nd? - Can priorities be assigned and using what criteria? Special issue with a particular focus? Is the journal double blind refereed? Relationships count.,Where to publish?,Journals want to be known for quality (Tier 1 journal). Journal seeks a good number of submissions. Short time to first decisi
5、on (also important to Authors!). Immediate rejection rate: - tends to increase as journal becomes known (and gets more choosy). Acceptance rate: - tends to reduce 25% is typical.,Where to publish?,Whats important to you? Journal reputation / Journal impact. Circulation and visibility. Acceptance/rej
6、ection rates. Speed of handling. Speed of publication.,Where to publish?,Whats important to you? Quality of printing and graphics. Publication costs: author pays, page charges, colour work charges. Publication benefits: preprints, issue of journal, . Subscription or Open Access?,Where to publish?,Ta
7、lk to colleagues, seek advice. For choosing journal and writing paper.,How to publish a paper,Submit to one journal at a time or be blacklisted! Multiple publication of the same content with different titles and/or in different journals is unethical. Scientific journals explicitly ask authors not to
8、 do this.,Impact factor,The impact factor of a journal is the average number of citations to those papers that were published during the two preceding years.,Impact factor,For example, 2003 impact factor: A = # of times articles published in 2001 and 2002 were cited by indexed journals during 2003.
9、B = total number of “citable items“ (articles, reviews, proceedings) published in 2001 and 2002. 2003 impact factor = A/B,Impact factor,Critical to a journals success and still the most common benchmark of quality How it works: Firstly, a journal must be accepted for indexing by Thomson ISI (Web of
10、Science). This depends on citation rate and it takes new journals a while to get going.,Impact factor,Publications in journals with high impact factors are thought to be more prestigious. Examples (2008): Nature: 31.4 Vision Research: 2.1 Typically, impact factors 1 indicate “good” journals,Impact f
11、actor,A better measure of the impact of an individual publication may be the number of journal citations that it receives. However, note that a weak paper could be cited by many other publications that point out its flaws.,Impact factors,Impact factors,Impact factors,Impact factors,Other measures of
12、 impact,Immediacy index: Number of citations of articles in a journal per year divided by the number of articles published.,Other measures of impact,Cited half-life: Median age of articles cited in Journal Citation Reports each year. e.g. if a journals half-life in 2005 is 5: citations from 2001-200
13、5 make up half of all citations from that journal in 2005 other half of citations precede 2001.,Other measures of impact,Aggregate impact factor: Calculated for a subject category. Takes into account the number of citations to all journals in the subject category, and the number of articles from all
14、 journals in the subject category.,The problem with impact factors,Impact factors have a large but controversial influence on published scientific research. Impact factors only apply to journals. Impact factors do not apply to individual scientists or individual articles. Citation impact: number of
15、citations received by a single article.,Copyright issues,In most cases, the author of an article is required to transfer the copyright to the journal publisher. To protect authors rights, and to coordinate permissions for reprints or other use.,Copyright issues,Some governments and research institut
16、es refuse but give the publisher an irrevocable license to publish, and retain the other rights themselves. In any case, author usually has right to distribute a number of reprints/post-prints. Open access movement.,Digital first policy,“The market is . moving away from print-based offerings to rapi
17、dly disseminated and highly searchable web-based formats”What is the role of journals in the digital age? Hardcopy 4 times/year Papers available online immediately they are accepted (if you subscribe!) Future everything on the web and “the journal” as a quality stamp?,Digital first policy,Publicatio
18、n has a cost. Standard model: pay for journals. Requirement to make research freely and rapidly available e.g. US National Institute for Health, Wellcome Trust.,Digital first policy,Alternate models: Pay to publish paper Journal has independent financial support Some variations: Print and/or Web onl
19、y subscriptions Hybrid publications Delayed publication Referee 10 and publish 1 free?,How a scientific journal works,Editor-in-Chief,In-house Editors,External Editorial Board,External reviewers,Associate Editors,How a scientific journal works,Editor-in-Chief,In-house Editors,External Editorial Boar
20、d,External reviewers,Associate Editors,How a journal works,Author submits manuscripts and figures to a journal.,How a journal works,Journal assigns the manuscript to an Editor.,How a journal works,The Editor decides whether the paper is suitable for publication in the journal. Correct format. Meets
21、the scope of the journal. Sufficiently new or novel.,How a journal works,The Editor sends the manuscript to several reviewers (usually two or more). Identifying information often removed to avoid any biased reviews.,How a journal works,Reviewers provide comments on the paper. Reviewers work alone an
22、d dont know other reviewers. Reviews typically take 2 weeks - 1 month. Reviewers are thorough and very busy!,How a journal works,Reviewers return their reviews, comments and a recommendation to the Editor.,How a journal works,The Editor will send the reviews and comments to the author, usually askin
23、g for a revised version of the paper.,How a journal works,The authors revise the paper and resubmit it to the journal Editor.,How a journal works,The Editor chooses to accept the paper or send it for a second review.,Cover letter,Should be addressed to the right journal and the right person. Should
24、be professional and courteous Be concise but informative. Briefly describe the work and its suitability for the journal.,Cover letter,Indicate significance and novelty of the work. Should not contain exaggerated claims. Include all statements and information required by the journal.,Cover letter,Men
25、tion any exceptions to journal requirements. Mention any relevant previous communications with the editor or editorial office. Give any dates of absence and alternative contact details or name and details of person to contact during that time. Top tip: suggest some possible referees. Suggest possibl
26、e referees to exclude and reason given (conflict of interest, professional bias.),Ready to submit?,Your manuscript is complete, well written, well presented, organised according to the journals requirements. All enclosures and permissions are to hand Youve prepared a good cover letter. Make sure the
27、 document is “stable” (e.g. use MS Word or PDF if requested).,Ready to submit?,Perhaps you can suggest some referees? Youve got a copy of everything. You know how and where to submit. If submitting online, remember to press the Submit button. Make sure you get an acknowledgement/ref number.,Online s
28、ubmission,Most journals use an online submission system for submitting papers. Provide information about your paper: list of authors; keywords; Title and abstract.,Online submission,Upload relevant files for your paper: Text (manuscript); Figures; Tables; Supplementary material; Cover letter (if req
29、uired).,Online submission,Initial check,The Editorial Office/Editor will immediately reject some papers: Scope any papers OBVIOUSLY not within the scope of the journal.,Initial check,The Editorial Office/Editor will immediately reject some papers: Length any papers not conforming to the length polic
30、y requirements.,Initial check,The Editorial Office/Editor will immediately reject some papers: English any papers that are deemed to be of VERY poor quality.,Initial check,The Editorial Office/Editor will immediately reject some papers: References any papers with either very few, or only very old re
31、ferences.,Initial check,The Editorial Office assumes that if a paper passes initial quality checks, it is suitable for sending to reviewers. The Editor has small window of opportunity to decline a paper.,Completion of research,Preparation of manuscript,Submission of manuscript,Assignment and review,
32、Decision,PUBLICATION!,Acceptance,Revision,Resubmission,Re-review,Rejection,Rejection,Preparation of manuscript,Peer review,Peer review,What? An authors work, research or ideas are subjected to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. Requires a community of experts in a given field,
33、 who are qualified and able to give an impartial review.,Peer review,Serves two major purposes: To filter what is published as “science”. Determine which papers report “good” science and eliminate poorly executed, flawed studies. To provide researchers with perspective. Even gifted researchers cant
34、catch every flaw in a study.,Peer review,Why? Considered essential to academic quality of scientific publications.,Peer review,Why? Workload: A small group of editors cannot devote sufficient time to each of the many articles submitted to a journal.,Peer review,Why? Diversity of opinion: Were the ed
35、itor(s) to judge all submitted material themselves, approved material would only reflect their opinion.,Peer review,Why? Limited expertise: An editor cannot be expected to be an expert in all areas covered by a single journal (or funding agency).,Peer review,It is therefore normal for manuscripts (a
36、nd grant applications) to be sent to one or more external reviewers for comment. Reviewers are typically anonymous and independent.,Reviewing,Journals have a database of reviewers - areas of expertise, how many papers reviewed recently, turnaround times, scores given etc. If possible, Editorial offi
37、ce will choose reviewers. Editor may choose or may need to select additional reviewers.,Reviewing,A good source is authors of references cited. Options: Blind refereeing, who knows who. Comments to Author. Comments to Editor.,Reviewing,What the referees are asked: General: Is the subject matter suit
38、able for publication in this journal? (If No, suggest other journals) Does the paper describe original work? (If No, give references to previous) Are the references adequate? (If No, provide suggestions) Should the paper be shorter? (If Yes, make suggestions),Reviewing,What the referees are asked: E
39、valuation of technical content: Theory Application,Reviewing,What the referees are asked: Presentation: Has the author demonstrated the value of the work? Is the manuscript organised to show clearly what has been done? Is the use of English clear and unambiguous?,Reviewing,Options given to Referee A
40、ccept Accept subject to minor revisions Accept subject to major revisions Decline with encouragement to submit a substantially revised paper Decline,Reviewing,Usually need 2 or 3 referee returns sometimes up to 5 Editorial Office monitors Editor is emailed when decision can be taken 9/10 times its p
41、retty straightforward 1/10 are more interesting! Occasionally need a further referee,Feedback,“This is outstanding work that should definitely be presented”,Feedback,“ Please accept . this critique as a love of the paper, and a desire to see it improved so that it is equally loved and embraced by th
42、e entire community”,Feedback,“ The paper is poorly written. This cannot be overstated. It has four high-level problems. First, it is poorly organized. Entire sections, as well as paragraphs within sections, are presented out of order. Second, sections and paragraphs do not discuss what they are purp
43、orted to set out to discuss. Third, . . Fourth, . Please rewrite the paper.”,A successful outcome,“Thank you for submitting your work to this journal. We are pleased to accept your paper and look forward to publishing it”,Handling rejection,Read the comments carefully. Dont respond in the heat of th
44、e moment. Dont insult the Editor or reviewers or call their abilities into question. Dont make threats or issue ultimatums. Dont try to argue back (unless you feel really aggrieved and sure of your ground!),Handling rejection,Can something be salvaged? Consider an alternative journal. Keep it it mig
45、ht come in handy later. Keep writing start again.,Dealing with reviewers comments,Be respectful! Dont treat the comments as an insult to your professional image. Evaluate all of the comments received calmly and carefully, point by point.,Dealing with reviewers comments,Make the suggested changes tha
46、t have value. If a reviewer misunderstood you, try to determine why. The misunderstanding may highlight a weakness in your argument or analysis, or weak writing.,Dealing with reviewers comments,Return the revised manuscript to the Editor. Summarize how you revised the manuscript in a cover letter to
47、 the Editor. Include a detailed, point by point response to each reviewer comment. If you choose not to accept a reviewers comment, indicate why not.,Dealing with reviewers comments,Avoid anger or sarcasm in your responses. Do not criticise the reviewer in response. If you have any major concerns ab
48、out the reviewer(s), deal with them calmly in the letter to the Editor.,Course outline,Lecture 11+12: How to present a poster. What is a poster and how do people read them? How to organize your poster; How to write the text for your poster; How to present your data in a poster; Examples of good and
49、bad posters.,Assignment 1,Write a short scientific article on a subject of your choice: 1. Experimental article Write a scientific paper describing your experiment and results. 2. Review article Choose a subject that interests you and write a review of the available literature.,Assignment 1,Rules: L
50、anguage: English Deadline: December 31 Submission: by e-mail to: subject: Assignment 1 Remember to include your name and student ID!,Assignment 1,Title: The title should be informative and concise, and not longer than 150 characters (including spaces). It should describe the topic of the manuscript in terms understandable to a broad readership.,