GETTING PUBLISHED
Open University ‘Developing as a Researcher – the next
steps’ conference, 19 March 2014
How
papers
get
published
Writing
papers
Choosing a
journal
How
scientific
publishing
is changing
Writing the
abstract
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
About me
Scientist
PhD
 Postdoc

Journal editor
Freelance editor
Consultant
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Journals expert
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Entrepreneur
Cofactor
Smoothing the path from research to publication
Paper editing
 Paper quick check
 Journal selector tool
 Consultancy
 Workshops

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
How papers get published
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Presubmission
hing
enquiry
Submission
Peer
review
Initial filter
Manuscript
preparation
Decision
Rejection
Acceptance
Revision
Experiments
Copyediting
Journal publishing
Typesetting
Checking by author
Proofreading
Authors
Print/online publication
Editors
Production
Others
Subscription/access
Reading
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Submission
Presubmission
enquiry
Peer
review
Initial filter
Manuscript
preparation
Experiments
Decision
Rejection
Acceptance
Revision
Copyediting
Typesetting
Checking by author
Proofreading
Print/online publication
Subscription/access
Reading
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Presubmission enquiries
Cover letter and abstract
 Send to editor instead of
submitting whole manuscript
 Check if journal encourages them

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Advantages of presubs
Useful for testing out selective
journals
 Can get a quick answer
 Can send in parallel

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Is your submission complete? 1








Title
Abstract
Introduction
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Methods
References
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Is your submission complete? 2









Author names and addresses
Funding
Acknowledgements
Competing interests
Author contributions
Data availability
Details of supplementary files
Ethical approval
Patient consent
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Cover letter
Editors have little time for each
paper
So…
Make the advance clear
 Be brief
 Get journal name right!

Anna Sharman CC:BY 2013 sharmanedit.co.uk
Statements to include
“The manuscript is not under
consideration elsewhere”
“All authors have approved the
manuscript”
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Submission
Presubmission
enquiry
Peer
review
Initial filter
Manuscript
preparation
Experiments
Decision
Rejection
Acceptance
Revision
Copyediting
Typesetting
Checking by author
Proofreading
Print/online publication
Subscription/access
Reading
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Peer review
Editor selects suitable reviewers
 Editor or admin invites
 Reviewers say yes/no
 Admin sends paper to 2/3
 Reviewers do review
 Editor makes decision

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Standard single-blind review
Reviewers know author names
 Reviewers anonymous except to
editor
 Reports seen by editor and
authors, no-one else

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Decision
Simple rejection
 Rejection, but might reconsider
 Revisions invited (more analyses)
 Minor revisions invited
 Accept as is

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Response to reviews
Be polite and reasonable
 Concise to editor, full details for
reviewers
 Quote each point, then respond
 Editor makes final decision

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Submission
Presubmission
enquiry
Peer
review
Initial filter
Manuscript
preparation
Experiments
Decision
Rejection
Acceptance
Revision
Copyediting
Typesetting
Checking by author
Proofreading
Print/online publication
Subscription/access
Reading
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The proofs
Make sure you’re available to
check
 Watch out for:

corrupted
symbols
misaligned tables
colour changes in figures
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Copyright and licences
Copyright transfer or
 Non-exclusive licence
 Creative Commons

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Your copyright is valuable
So…
Don’t give it away
(at least without careful thought)
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Submission
Presubmission
enquiry
Peer
review
Initial filter
Manuscript
preparation
Experiments
Decision
Rejection
Acceptance
Revision
Copyediting
Typesetting
Checking by author
Proofreading
Print/online publication
Subscription/access
Reading
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Access
Personal subscription
 Library subscription
 Open access

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
After publication
Email pdf
 Profiles
 Lab website
 Blog
 Social media

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
How scientific publishing is changing
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Open access leads to…
Competition for authors
 Innovative pricing
 ‘Predatory’ journals

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
‘Predatory’ journals
Beall’s list
 OASPA
 Spam calls for papers
 Check out journal before submitting

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Journal-independent peer review
Peer review outside journal
 Journals can take papers with
reports
 Saves time
 Like submitting to many journals at
once

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Post-publication peer review
On journal website
 On independent website
 On PubMed
 On social media

Your paper will get talked about
– be prepared
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Post-publication review sites
F1000 Prime
 PubPeer
 PubMed Commons
 PLOS Open Evaluation

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Conclusion
Things will keep changing
 You have more choice than ever
 Author has more power…
 … and more responsibility for quality
 Getting into the right journal isn’t
everything

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Choosing a journal
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Why are you in science?
To find out cool things
 To change the world
 To get a good career
 To be famous

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Why do you want to publish?
Career
 To be built on
 For the world
 Waste not to
 To get feedback
 To prevent wasted work by others

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
So you want a journal that will…
Give a stamp of approval
 Show how exciting your work is
 Get your results out there for many to
read and share
 Not restrict reuse
 Encourage comments
 … and do all this quickly and cheaply

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
What is a journal for?
Registration: establishing precedence
 Dissemination: communicating the
findings
 Peer review: ensuring quality control
 Archiving: preserving
 Navigation: filtering and signposting

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Impact
Choosing a journal 1
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Journal impact metrics
Impact factor calculation
A = no of times articles published in journal in
2011 and 2012 were cited during 2013
B = total "citable items" that were published
by journal in 2011 and 2012
2013 impact factor = A/B
(released June 2014)
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Problems with Impact Factor
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Citations ≠ impact
2 years after publication
Average (mean) -> can be skewed
Can be gamed
Proprietary methods
Errors unknown
New journals omitted
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Journal metrics are useful for
Comparing journals for submission
 Choosing whether to subscribe to a
journal
 Seeing how a journal has changed
over time
 … that’s it.

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
But
Don’t rely on just one metric
 Don’t use journal metrics for
assessing articles
 or for assessing researchers

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Article-level metrics
Pdf downloads
 Page views
 Social bookmarks
 Comments
 Reader ratings
 Tweets etc
 Media mentions
 Citations

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Dissemination
Choosing a journal 2
Anna Sharman CC:BY 2013 sharmanedit.co.uk
Indexing







Web of Science
Scopus
PubMed
GeoRef
AGRICOLA
Chemical Abstracts
DOAJ (if open access)
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Why indexing matters
Shows journal is reputable (not predatory)
 Means people can find your paper
 Web of Science indexing is necessary for
impact factor
NB Google Scholar indexes everything!

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Open access

Read by anyone:
 Doctors,
patients, independent scholars…
Journalists can cover it easily
 Readers mean impact
 Open means sharable
 Anywhere in the world

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Citation advantage of open access
27 of 31 studies: OA increased citations
 OA advantage of:

–5% to 36% (biology)
 170% to 580% (physics/astronomy)

(Swan, Alma (2010) The Open Access citation advantage: Studies and results to
date. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/268516/ )
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Publicity
Minireviews/Editorials
 Press releases
 Blog
 Twitter, Facebook
 Awards


Altmetrics
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Peer review
Choosing a journal 3
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Types of peer review
Standard: single blind, closed
 Complete anonymity
 Open: no anonymity
 Open: comments published
 Discussion
 Post publication


For soundness only (megajournals)
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Megajournals
Peer review only for soundness of science
 Not for potential impact, significance,
surprisingness, etc
 Broad subject area
 Open access
 Potential to get very large
 eg PLOS ONE

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Cascading peer review
Review by
journal A
Not significant
enough, but
sound science
Rejected
Can accept
without further
review
Journal B sees
reports for
journal A
Offer to pass
it to sister
journal B
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Speed
Choosing a journal 4
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Speed
With editor
With reviewers
With authors
With production
Submission to 1st decision time
Acceptance to publication time
Time
First review
Revision
Production
Resubmit
Sent
for review
Submission
2nd review
Acceptance
Decision
Reviews
back
Sent for
rereview
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Reviews
back
Publication
Journal speed
Example of metrics
from Elsevier
journal
(International
Journal of
Biochemistry and
Cell Biology)
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Issues and backlogs
Articles that are ready are compiled into
issues
 Some articles wait for the rest
 Limit on articles per issue
= longer wait
 Print publication is much slower
 Many publish continuously online

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Discussion
In threes
 Similar subject areas
 10 minutes
 What was new to you?
 How might this change how you
choose a journal?

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Writing the abstract
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The structure of an abstract 1
European Association of Science Editors
(EASE) guidelines:
 Background
 Objectives
 Methods
 Results
 Conclusions
 Implications
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The structure of an abstract 2
Nature’s guideline:
 Basic
introduction
 More detailed background
 General problem
 ‘Here we show’
 Main result
 Results into context
 (optional) Broader perspective
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Why is this question interesting?
“We discovered that J
causes Q…”
But why should I
care what causes
Q?
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
What problem?
“Others have done X.
We did Y…”
But why did you
do Y? What was
wrong with X?
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Methodological detail
“We added 3.57 ml of Z to a 4.76 l solution of
W and stirred for 15 minutes. The resulting
precipitate was significantly better than the
previous compound
(p = 0.0087, CI = 1.45-2.67,
Student’s t-test…”
Why is all that
guff in the
abstract?
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Vague conclusion
“These results give
insights into how A
works…”
What insights?
How does A work?
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The structure of a paper
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The structure of a paper

Usual structure:
 Title
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Results
 Discussion
Results and Discussion
 Conclusions
 Methods
 References
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The Introduction
Only necessary background
 Not full literature review
 End with brief summary of:

questions
being addressed
what you did
what you found
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Figures and legends
Don’t overload with panels
 Check journal guidelines/usual
practice
 Legends should describe what is
shown

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The Discussion
Summary of main result(s)
 How questions posed in Introduction have
been answered
 Discuss particular points
 Limitations
 Future work
 Conclusions (or separate)

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Writing a paper
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Writing style
Clarity, clarity, clarity
 Say:

what
you did
what you found
what it means
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
General principles
First person OK
 Info where readers expect
 No exact repetition
 Make your/previous work clear

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Tenses

Past:
what you did
 what previous papers did


Perfect:



looking back in the paper
generalising about previous work
Present:
 what
is known
 what you present in the paper
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
The three secrets of good writing
Read lots
 Write lots
 Revise

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Read
Read lots of papers
 Note down what makes a paper
good or bad
 Collect examples of good writing

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Write

Write drafts early
of
thesis chapters
of parts of papers
Write about anything and
everything
 Start a science blog?

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Revise
Everyone’s first draft is terrible
 Get feedback and act on it
 Expect many revisions per paper

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
If you need extra help
… get an editor.
Editing company
 Sfep directory
 Friends and family

Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Keep in touch
anna@sharmanedit.co.uk
@sharmanedit
Look out for Cofactor launch
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Megajournals 1
Physical and biological
sciences:
Physical sciences:
Social sciences:
PLOS One
Scientific Reports
Springer Plus
QScience Connect
The Scientific World Journal
AIP Advances
IEEE Access
Elementa
SAGE Open
Anna Sharman CC:BY-NC 2014 sharmanedit.co.uk
Megajournals 2
Frontiers journals
The BMC series
ISRN series
PeerJ
F1000Research
Gigascience
BMJ Open
SAGE Open Medicine
CMAJ Open
Cureus
Biology Open
FEBS Open Bio
G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
CC:BY-NC 2014
sharmanedit.co.uk
Ecosphere
Biological sciences and
medicine:
Medicine:
Biological sciences:
Anna Sharman