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How to get your work published in English-language int’l journals. Hou Mingxin 侯明新 Commissioning Editor Nov. 6th, 2008, Xiamen. Introduction Why publish & publish where? Writing & submitting Publishing house Peer review. John Wiley & Sons.
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How to get your work publishedin English-language int’l journals Hou Mingxin 侯明新 Commissioning Editor Nov. 6th, 2008, Xiamen
Introduction • Why publish & publish where? • Writing & submitting • Publishing house • Peer review
John Wiley & Sons • “400 Best Big Companies in America” - 2007, 2008 Forbes • “One of the 20 Best Book Publishing Companies to Work For” - 2007, Book Business magazine • “100 Best Companies to Work For” – 2005, 2006 Fortune
Wiley’s core businesses • STMS: Publishes journals, books, major reference works, databases, and laboratory manuals, in a variety of scientific and medical fields, offered in print and electronically. • Professional / Trade: Publishes professional, general interest non-fiction and subscription products. Subject areas include business, architecture, professional culinary, psychology, education, travel, health, religion, pets, etc. • Higher Education: Acquires, develops, markets, and sells educational materials in a variety of media for colleges and universities, and online learning.
Wiley-Blackwell (STMS) • In 2007, Wiley acquired Blackwell • Over 1,400 journals, #2 in journal publishing segment • 77% journals vs. 23% books • Online platform: ( www.interscience.wiley.com )
1799-2008 Merged on July 1st with Blackwell-Synergy • > 30 mio. visits/month • > 15 mio. fulltext accesses/ month(growth rates ~ 20%) • 30 mio. end users have access to fulltext • ca. 3,2 mio. articles from journals (>1400 journals, 500 with archives) • ca. 0.5 mio articles from books, references & databases
Introduction • Why publish & where to publish • Writing & submitting • Publishing house • Peer review
The Journal • A specialised periodical • containing scientific content • written by the scholars or researchers of that content themselves • edited by an academic expert in the field • its content peer reviewed by the community • A forum for the exchange of ideas in a subject area • A point of community focus • A brand Info courtesy of Michael Mabe, CEO of STM
The invention of journal publishing • Born in Bremen, Germany • Resident London from 1652 • Indefatigable correspondent with major scientists of his day • Appointed (joint) Secretary to the Royal Society in 1663 • Created (as editor and commercial publisher) the first scientific journal in 1665 Henry Oldenburg (1618-1677) Info courtesy of Michael Mabe, CEO of STM
First Scientific Journal • 6th March 1665 Philosophical Transactions • First true scholarly journal Info and Photo courtesy of Michael Mabe, CEO of STM
Why publish? • Disseminate information, enable scientific debate - “Science originates in dialogue” • Show first publication date • Acceptance in a high quality journal enhances author reputation
Where to publish Ian Rowlands and Dave Nicholas. New Journal Publishing Models: An international survey of Senior Researchers. A CIBER Report for the Publishers Association and International Association of STM Publishers. 2005
Impact Factor Impact Factor2007 = Number of citations in 2007 to articles published in 2005 and 2006 _________________________________ Number of source items published in 2005 and 2006 Cited window Citing window Example 2002 2002 Journal of … publishes 75 articles in 2005 and 83 articles in 2006. In 2007 it receives a total of 344 citations to these articles in all the other published journals. The journal’s Impact Factor for 2007 is 344 (75 + 83) = 2.18 2003 2003 2004 2004 2005 2005 2006 2006 2007 2007
Going for a journal with a high Impact Factor • Advantages: • Prestige • Academic advancement • Disadvantages: • High rejection rate • Papers triaged • Some have idiosyncratic style • Delay due to time before final rejection
Choosing the right journal • Seekadvicefrom your advisors, colleagues • Read the Instruction for AuthorsandAim and Scope • Read titles/abstracts of other papers • Don’t aim too high– go one level up. • In general, publications in English attract more attention worldwide than those in any other language. • Page charges? Usually no. But will charge additional pages, color pages
Impact Factor 5.330 2.340 3.502 3.446 0.714 2.825 10.031 2.597 2.914
Submitted Communications: China 1998 – 2008 Number Year * extrapolated
China Japan South Korea Other Submitted Communications: East Asia 1998 – 2008 Number Year * extrapolated
Rejected Communications:1986 – 2007 73% 69% 68% 63% Number 62% 59% 56% 54% 48% 44% 42% 30% Year In 2007 ca. 20% of the Communications were rejected directly (without refeering)!
Introduction • Why publish & publish where? • Writing & submitting • Publishing house • Peer review
Submitting online • Instruction for Author] • Cover letter?
Cover letter Why need a cover letter? What should be involved? • Significance • Why journal selected • Suggesting/excluding referees (Wiley journal: co-authors in the past 5 years ≠ referees) • Submit to one journal ONLY ? • Have ALL the co-authors read the last edition of the manuscript? • Authorize the journal to publish your paper
Introduction • Why publish & publish where? • Writing & Submitting • Publishing house • Peer review
Publishing Cycle AGENT finalized journal issues PUBLISHER Copyediting / proofing LIBRARY author access to electronic or paper journals submission decision/ revision JOURNAL accepted peer reviewed mss reader editorial office editor Info and Photo courtesy of Michael Mabe, CEO of STM scholarly community peer review process referee
Publishing house • Editor-in-chief • Managing editor • Receiving editors • Regional editors • Editorial advisory board members • Referees (reviewers)
What do editors do? • Monitoring of latest developments in the field • Acquisition of articles: reviews, highlights etc. • Assessing manuscripts and selection of referees • Assessing referee reports • Decisions on acceptance and rejection • Dealing with appeals
What else do editors do? • Language polishing and copy editing • Optimizing the graphical material • Enhancing the electronic content • Increasing the visibility of content • Testing and implementing new technology
What does editing mean? Check completeness,check logic, consistency (text, illustrations, data),clearness of presentation (the editor as first reader),language, nomenclature,uniformity(formula, abbreviations, names, charts, references),correct outline, check proofs,imprimatur, metadata forwhich parts?,PDF/XML?, (re)write (graphical) abstracts,edit for the table of contents, is the headline correct?,which keywords?, prepare index,for various abstracting services (e.g. ISI...),for own alerting services, for EarlyView (DOI),for the printed version(page numbers),linking of supporting material(videos, internal, external),edit for the national archiving(print, electronic),standards, checklists,homepages, press releases...etc. etc.
Introduction • Why publish & publish where? • Writing & Submitting • Publishing house • Peer review
Peer review: purpose • To select high quality papers: accurate, original • Peer recognition – impact
Peer review: process • Open review/Single blind /Double blind review • Editorial board with occasional further review • In-house staff plus external review • Reviewers chosen by Journal, author could also nominate or warn against those with conflicting interest • Reviewers are asked to comment on different aspects of paper, depending on the journal • Typically: originality, novelty, technical accuracy, reproducibility, within scope of journal
Peer review: report • Two reports: one to author, one to editor • Expect 2-4 sets of comments • Typical recommendations: accept, accept with minor modifications, accept with major revisions, reject but encourage re-submission, reject.
Referee Report Submission ● ● ● ● ●
Referees and Referee Reports A scientist is a mimosa when he himself has made a mistake, and like a roaring lion when he discovers a mistake of others. Albert Einstein This manuscript must be either drastically reduced or fully oxidized. Anonymous Referee This is yet another example of a nanoscience paper with nanonovelty and nanocontent. Anonymous Referee
Common complaints • “The language is obscure, I do not have time to try and understand the science – we already have more than enough good papers, so I will have to reject straight away.” • “This is not original, it’s just like his last paper.” • “The authors obviously did not read the journal before submitting – it’s out of scope”. • “Just contradicting the reviewers is not helpful – we chose them for their expertise and expect their comments to be given due consideration.”
Responding to comments • Comments are submitted in the spirit of scholarly communication – take them in that spirit • Be polite, avoid personal attack and defensive behavior • Take comments into consideration • Explain which changes have been carried out • If suggestions/additional experiments were not incorporated explain why • Argue with scientific evidence • If you really do not agree with making the changes proposed, you need to argue with editor • Or withdraw your paper and submit to another journal
Paper accepted • Submit final version, production data, figure quality, size and (file) format as instructed • Publishers such as Wiley-Blackwell will copyedit your manuscript • Grammatical errors, inconsistencies, spelling mistakes will be removed • References checked – double check prior to submission: complete and accurate? • Proofs sent to you for checking – often in PDF format • Change errors only, do not re-write.
Publication • Online version usually in advance of print – e.g EarlyView on Interscience • Production time will depend on frequency of journal, and pipeline of papers waiting to be published • Finally, enjoy your feeling of success
Online Publication (Provisional) Decision Final Manuscript Version 0 22 23 30 61 86 122 days Copyediting Completed Final Decision Print Publication Submission Manuscript Timeline (Top 50%) ACES Meeting – July 18, 2008
Questions? • Hou Mingxin, 侯明新, commissioning editor • mhou@wiley.com • Cynthia Chiang, 江姿颖, account manager • cchiang@wiley.com