WIRTING AND PUBLISHING

RESEARCH PAPERS

YASHAVANTHA DONGRE

UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE
CONTENTS

1. Preparing to write 6. Sections of an article

your manuscript 7. Submission process
2. Types of papers 8. Peer review process
3. Journal selection 9. Rejection
4. Ethical guidelines 10. What next?
5. Defining authorship
Preparing to Write Your Manuscript
• What is the novelty?
• What is the message?
• Put it in context—need appropriate refs
• Have it read by others
• Don’t make it longer (or shorter) than
needed
• Invest time in writing well
Preparing to Write Your Manuscript

• Choose appropriate co-authors

• Choose appropriate journal
(don’t aim too high and don’t aim too
low)
• There’s more to a journal than its Impact
Factor
• Read the journal’s Author webpage
• Use the correct format
• Research articles • Discussion
• Reviews • Errata
• Letters • Conference
• Comments/ proceedings
Replies
Journal Selection

• Specializedbroad interest
• Theoreticalapplied
• Full-length
• Subscriptionopen access
• Timeliness of publication process
• Journal reputation
Ethical Guidelines

• Obtain necessary clearances

• Submit to one journal at a time
• Declare any conflicts of interest
• Give proper attribution
Ethical Guidelines
• Do not fabricate data
• Comply with internationally recognized
principles for use of animal and human
subjects in research
• Word by word copying is strongly
discouraged, but if necessary must be given
proper attribution
Defining Authorship
Authors make substantive contributions:
• Basic physical ideas or discussion
• Laboratory experiments
• Detailed calculations
All authors share
responsibility and
accountability for
publication content
Alternatives for Assigning Credit

• Citation
Private conversations referenced in publications
only with permission

• Acknowledgement
Contribution is not significant enough to list
as author, must obtain permission first
Types of Authorship
• Lead author
Primary responsibility, most substantial contribution,
usually first author

• Submitting author – deals with journal

• Corresponding author
Person interested individuals contact,
predictable address; usually submitting author
• Last author
Alphabetical or least contributor, sometimes head
of lab
What Order?

• In some fields, student is first author if

based primarily on Ph.D. dissertation
• Order is often independent of relative
status/rank of authors
• Should be discussed at start
• Change order only with permission of all
• No addition of authors after submission
Authorship and Submission

• List affiliations of each author

• Allow all authors to review and comment
prior to submission
• Journal will send email to
all authors – Be ethical!
Sections of an Article

Title: informative, accurate, concise

Example of good title
Repetitively pulsed tunable dye laser for high
resolution spectroscopy

Example of bad title

A Unique, Novel Object-Detection Model that
Improves upon that of Wang et al.
Sections of an Article

Abstract
• Problem and objectives
• Methodology
• Findings and Conclusion
• Research’s effect and impact
Check journal style guide for abstract
length restrictions
Sections of an Article

Introduction
• Problem to be addressed
• Background and literature review
• New developments and principle results
• Research purpose and method
Sections of an Article

Main Body of Paper

• Problem
• Theory and experiment
• Results
• Figures/multimedia
Sections of an Article

Discussion
• Results viewed in larger context
• Comparison with other related work
• Significance
Sections of an Article

Conclusion
• Summary (no new information)
• Statement of specific conclusions
• Future consideration
Sections of an Article
References
• Numerical order by appearance
• Follow journal’s style guide
• EndNote and Bibtex
Sections of an Article

Appendices
• Supplementary material
• Material valuable for specialist
Acknowledgments
• Technical assistance/useful comments
• Financial support/disclosures
Writing Your Paper in English
• Grammar, punctuation, spelling, terminology
• Logical sentence structure, clarity of content
• Common weakness is omission or misuse of
“the” and “a”
• Suggestions
o Use shorter sentences
o Read papers in English in leading
research journals
o Ask colleagues for help
• Work relevant to journal scope
• Results significant to field
• Incremental work discouraged
• Discussion, conclusions supported by data
• Work placed in proper context
• Equations, figures, tables, multimedia
contribute to presentation
• Well-written and logically organized
Before You Submit

Language Review
• http://languageediting.osa.org
Style review
• Journal style guide
• Browse published
articles
Follow online submission process
Copyright
agreement
• Authors
transfer copyright
• Retain rights for
author reuse
Title and Abstract
• Note if for
feature issue
• Note related
papers
Submission Process
Reviewer
suggestions
• 3 names
required
• Designate
non-preferred
Peer Review Process

Reviewer recommendations
• Accepted as is
• Requires further revisions
• Referred to another journal
• Rejected
Peer review comments should help produce a
better manuscript
Peer Review Process

Manuscript Decisions
• Editor makes decision after peer review
• If revisions are requested
• Authors may resubmit revised manuscript
• A cover letter should explain each change
• Editor may refer back to review
• Editor makes final decision
Suggest a few referees, but make sure that:
• They aren’t just the big names in the field
• They are not closely linked to you.
• You can ask for reviewers to be excluded, but
don’t go overboard
Peer Review Process
Dealing with referee’s comments:
• Referees are not your enemy—consider them an
ally who can help improve your manuscript
• Treat them seriously (one revision allowed)
• Deal with each and every point
- You don’t need to agree with all of them
• Can make additional changes
• Don’t cast aspersions on referees, or try to guess
the referees’ identity (you are likely to be wrong)
• Be courteous to referees & editors
Your Participation in the Process

• Referees and Editors are volunteers

• Be generous with your own time as a reviewer
• Refereeing is a necessary cv item, shows
engagement in the community
• Refereeing record is considered for Editorial
Board candidates
• Point out suspicions of unethical behavior
What if rejected?

• Review thoroughly based on reviewers

comments and reasons given for non-
acceptance
• Send to another Journal
• If rejected again – send to next lower
grade journal – if you think that’s ok
• If thrice rejected – reconsider submitting
the same to other journals
FINALLY

• 1. Any new idea could be sold in the

market
• 2. Packaging is as important as content –
but not more
• 3. Look for a journal that pays you rather
than the one for which you need to pay
• 4. Allow enough time for the idea to sink in
before writing
• 5. Breakthrough is important – after that it
becomes a mere habit