Tips for Publishing a Journal Article for the First Time

Presented by: Dr. Veronica McGowanSIGCT President, former editor of The

Journal for Computing Teachers

Why Write? Why Publish?• Publishing provides creditability for a topic/thought process.• Journal articles as an academic job qualification.

– There often is increasing pressure from administrators and others that you push yourself to publish your work.

– Quantifies academic standing• Journal articles as academic brand awareness.• Contribution to the field.

– It is important to your discipline that you help create new ideas, advance theory, describe your emerging techniques, challenge widely held views, and influence others with your growing knowledge base.

• Opens a dialog with others in the field.– These people may be editors, future writing partners.

• Deadlines and editing process may improve writing ability/style.• Opportunity to foster student publication.• Personal growth, enhanced self-discipline, personal lifelong learning, and career

enhancement come from the publication process by knowing others will benefit from your work and that you can feel connected to the profession.

Pre-writing activities• Become a peer review for conferences or journals to see how other submissions are

presented• Form a team-the leadership and networking opportunities may offer one of the best side-

effects of the article– Select team members that represent different areas (statistician, psychology, practitioner)

• Survey the literature in the field prior to literature review to determine gaps– New software and technologies as well as new instructional models need research to develop their

relevance• When writing, keep the journal(s) you may want to submit to in mind-many journal require

that a % or significant portion of references be from their journal• Grant support? Travel funds, etc.• Have a strategic plan-this may be your research agenda

– Do you want to explore a topic in depth with multiple articles in order to become an expert, or contribute to field breadth?

– Diversity in publication (online journals, peer-reviewed, conference proceedings, editor-reviewed, etc.)

– Diversity in authors (single-author, partnership, team)– Pair your writing agenda with your grant-writing agenda

Know the Ethics

• Authenticity• Accuracy• Originality• Credit• Ethical treatment of humans and animals• Disclosure of conflicts of interest

Writing the Article

• When writing, keep the journal(s) you may want to submit to in mind-many journal require that a % or significant portion of references be from their journal

• Innovative topics appeal to readers• Writing style is equally important to content. • A good literature review makes the topic accessible to practitioners who may not

have the knowledge base to understand the statistical analysis of empirical research

• Before submitting to a journal, have at least two colleagues review the article (at least one for content and one for grammar/style)– This is an opportunity for collegial networking, perhaps future co-authorships– Many feel uncomfortable asking for help-they’ve been there too and may admire your

initiative– If a culture of collegial cooperation doesn’t exist-perhaps you can create it (departmental

writing center, grant support, student research opportunities)• Make sure you are using both: the current edition of format and style guides (e.g.

APA is 6th edition). Failure is this area alone could result in a rejection

Structure of paper• Usual organization of a scientific paper:

IMRAD - (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion)

• A common structure of case reports: Introduction, Case Description, Discussion

Selecting a Journal• Try an online-only publication

– Requirements may be less stringent (article length)– Impact Rating lower

• Try presenting at conferences with published conference proceedings– Conferences in unusual locations may have trouble finding people who can travel to present– local conferences like to get local institutional representatives (cheaper to travel, builds your local network)

• Previously published articles provide a good view of the types of articles the journal is interested as well as writing style and format– Articles that are a poor fit waste the editors’ time and your time (some response times are 6-8 months!)

• Impact rating affects % accepted• Network with editors and colleagues who know editors to get the inside track on what the editor is

looking for and to determine fit• Look for journals that state they offer constructive comments or are marketed to beginning

authors-they may provide the most feedback• Most journals will not consider an article if it has been previously published or is under

consideration elsewhere. You usually need to declare such information.• Look for instructions to authors (usually posted on Website)• Be aware of publishing deadlines

Editing• Worst problem-”Surface” edit conducted by author when

the editor indicates that a more substantive edit required• Recheck links, they often change during the long review

process• People often remove an article from consideration if the

review yields substantial problems that would require reworking the research.

• Don’t forget to remove references to deleted text; insure all text has proper references

• Check grammar, punctuation, and usage.• Make sure that acronyms are defined.• Pay attention to items often difficult for non-native users of

English:– Preposition use– Verb tense– Use of articles such as the– Other

The Review Process• Journals can be run by professional editorial staff (some of which receive about 12,000 submissions per

year) or by academics who take on the role of editor for a defined period of time. Both types of editors send papers out to peer reviewers--working scientists who evaluate your paper for accuracy, logic, and scientific interest. Many journals have an initial screening step in which papers unlikely to make it through the review process are rejected.

• Reviewers are chosen by the editor on the basis of their expertise in the field, often utilizing extensive databases assembled by the journal and the editor’s knowledge of the area. Some scientists are better reviewers than others--they are more critical and thorough, a fact that quickly becomes known to editors. The review process can take anywhere from several weeks to a few months. After review, the editor makes a decision about publication, taking into account all of the feedback he or she has received. – The editorial goals of the journal--sometimes journals decide that certain areas are of particular upcoming or

lessening interest--factor into the decision, as does knowledge about the reviewers themselves and the background behind their opinions.

• In technical papers, you may have to declare the names of other scientists who are working on the same problem and so would have a conflict of interest in reviewing your paper. Keep the list short; otherwise, the editor will be forced to ignore your list or get an uninformed review. If it is necessary to ask that a few individuals be excluded from review, explain why.

• All of the related data not included in the main body of the paper should be clearly accessible to the reviewers, either as an appendix or through a publicly available database.

Copyright to the article

• In most cases, copyright in the article will be with the publisher, or with the society that owns the journal. You’ll probably be given a pdf of the article which you can post on a departmental web page or in an institutional repository, known as Author's rights to reuse and post their own articles. You may receive a print copy, but you might have to ask for it, as many publishers don’t usually provide a print copy as a matter of course.

Example: permission page for Elsevier journals:• http://www.elsevier.com/journal-authors/permission-

seeking-guidelines-for-elsevier-authors

Resources

• Purdue Online Writing Lab https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

• On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12192

• Grammar Girl (grammar.quickanddirtytips.com)• Instructions to Authors in the Health Sciences

(mulford.meduohio.edu/instr)• UsingEnglish.com (www.usingenglish.com)