How to write good

research paper in a

target journal

S G Deshmukh ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management , Gwalior

13 Dec 2015

acknowledgements

This presentation is based on previous presentations made and inputs by

Dr Jitesh Thakkar (IIT Kgp) at IIT Kgp

Prof R P Mohanty (ICFAI, Hyd),

and discussions with

Prof N K Sharma (IITK),

Disclaimer …

This presentation is based on compilation from a variety of resources (available on

google, and other open sources )

The purpose is for illustration only

There is no commercial intent

Publications.. How it happens…

There are too many ideas requiring outlets in the form of journals

100s, sometimes 1000s of papers received each year in a typical good journal

Acceptance rates typically 5%-30%

Papers are rejected at three stages:

without review (50%)

after review (45%)

after revision (5%)

Published paper… A. Prakash a, Felix T.S. Chan a,, H. Liao b, S.G. Deshmukh ,Network

optimization in supply chain: A KBGA approach, Decision Support Systems

52 (2012) 528–538

Journal

Impact factor: 2.313 http://www.journals.elsevier.com/deci

sion-support-systems/

Rating : A* in ABDC

classification

Paper

Citations: 9

Reads : 19

Publication Process • Submission

• Acceptance of submission

• Reviews submitted

Accepted for publication as written

Accepted if revised

Rejected

• Response to reviews

• Re-submission of edited manuscript

• Repeat the process till it gets published /rejected

Some generic points..

Read many papers, and learn from good ones , bad ones & not-so-good ones !

Write frequently: practice, practice , and

practice

Review frequently, ask someone else to review

Learn to be objective and critical about your work: Ask others to be critique about your work

Learn to expect and accept rejection

Some generic points..

Good work

Novelty/Uniqueness of idea

Comprehensive/critical review of literature

Strong data; strong analysis/stats input

Thought provoking discussion recognizing

limitations of one’s work and practicing guidelines Good writing

Good organization/Layout

Good use of tables & figures/diagrams

Good length & breadth

Some more generic points…

• Read and follow all formatting guidelines

• Be sure the journal is suitable for the research you want to disseminate

• Keep in good communications with co-authors and peer group

• Keep the paper clearly organized and place information in the correct location

• Ensure that you know the existing research and cite it correctly

Target your paper at a particular journal

Familiarize yourself thoroughly with potential target journals

Get in touch with peer authors

what sort of papers do they publish? (original articles, book reviews, commentaries, letters ?)

What is the “publishing culture” of the journal?

Submit a paper for that journal

Journal Impact factors

Impact Factor indicates how often articles in a certain journal are cited within the two years

following the publication date. For example, the ISI Impact Factor for ABCD in 2015 is calculated as the sum of all 2015 citations of

articles published in Ecology in 2013 and 2014 divided by the total sum of all articles published in ABCD in those two years.

Quality Journal list

ABDC List (Australian Business Deans Council) http://www.abdc.edu.au/

JOURNAL QUALITY LIST Fifty-sixth Edition, 27 November 2015 Compiled and edited by Professor Anne-Wil Harzing

Source: http://www.harzing.com/download/jql_journal.pdf

Some good journals.. http://www.journals.elsevie

r.com/omega/

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/

tppc20/current

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-and-operations-research/

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/decision-support-

systems/

IEEE Trans. Recommendation

Code Recommendation

A Publish Unaltered

AQ Publish in Minor, Required Changes

RQ Review Again After Major Changes

R Reject (A major rewrite is required; encourage

resubmission at a later time.)

R Reject (Paper is not of sufficient quality or novelty to be

published in this Transactions.)

R Reject (Paper is seriously flawed; do not encourage

resubmission.)

Typical causes for rejection : 1. General

Research issue not important

not original/no novelty

not appropriate for journal

data old & now irrelevant

practical difficulties/doubtful results

no relevance /thematic

Too general

Typical causes for rejection :

2. Technical

unclear hypotheses/poorly worded

poor or weak design/

no research methodology

sample biased or too small

statistics inappropriate or misapplied

conclusions unjustified

Too specific/not to be generalizable

references outdated

Typical Causes for rejection :

3. Style/ Presentation

poorly organized, no structure !

badly written(english !)

Verbose

Too many errors

terrible tables, poor captions

needless figures, nor visible

outdated or improperly cited references

Preliminaries: Abstract & Title

VITAL! VITAL!

May be all that is read

structure abstract if so required

make it tell the whole story

tell it well; may be all that is seen

will influence editor

title: choose with care (not too clever)

Importance of Documentation

It is important to understand the importance of documentation.

One must be comfortable in documentation. You must be in the habit of writing.

A regular habit is to be formed wherein writing skills are to be honed.

The writing could include: summary of a paper, some observations about a phenomenon, a critique of the literature, etc.

The following could be opportunities to hone such skills:

Minutes of the meeting between guide and you

Minutes of the proceedings between an expert and you

Observations based on a recent Ph D viva voce attended

Summary of the proceedings of a conference /workshop

attended.

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Proper Articulation

In the end, what matters is proper articulation of

ideas and work in the form of paper

The paper cannot be built upon unless its

components such as background, literature

review, methodology, discussion, conclusions,

etc. are formed and woven properly.

Intermediate findings must be communicated-

may be through conference papers/social

media/notes/journal papers .

20

21

Life Cycle of “Ph.D Student”

1 Be

Proactive

2

Begin with

the end in mind

3 Put First

Things First

4

Think Win- Win

Seek First to understand ------Then

to be understood

5

Synergize

6

7 Sharpen

the Saw

Dependence

Independence

Interdependence

PRIVATE

VICTORY

PUBLIC

VICTORY

Source: 7-Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

Visualizing the End First Taking a clue from Stephen Covey’s habit of “Visualizing

the End First”, one must visualize how his paper is going

to look like and then start preparing for the same.

One must write a tentative outline of the paper to say he/she

visualizes sections in the paper .

The tentative titles of these sections must be written and

one should start preparing folders for each of these sections

Keep revising the contents of these folders as you mature. A

thumb rule could be : revise every week !.

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10 Tentative Titles

Based on the outline of the broad topic of the paper , one must write at least 10 tentative

titles of the paper.

Keep revising these titles, as one proceeds.

These titles could be : Some studies on ,

Some Investigations into ----, Development of a model: A case of …… etc.

23

Define the Goal, Timeline and the Deliverables

One must define the goal , timeline and the

deliverables that are expected from the paper.

He/she may browse through the past work done

by the students of his/her guide and /or work

submitted in his/her

department/institute/university.

This will help in understanding the expectations

from his/her work.

24

Collect Relevant Papers

One must collect as many relevant papers as possible for his/her research.

These could be downloaded from a variety of sources.

The date and source must be written in the

folder.

One should also not forget to take a regular

back –up of these folders.

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Tentative Classification A tentative classification scheme of the

literature /taxonomy must be designed.

Accordingly, start analyzing and criticizing

the literature by highlighting the contribution in each of these classes.

Develop a mental habit of

revisong/reviewing classification/categorization: This helps in understanding the literature

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Prepare a list of 25-30 possible key words

One must also prepare a list of 25-30 possible key words in the broad area of

research.

Then start collecting (downloading) paper based on these key words.

Keep updating this list

27

Prepare a list of 25-30 tools/techniques

Based on the broad are, prepare a list of 25-30

tools/techniques that are going to be used.

Prepare a write up on each of these tools/techniques

based on the fundamental paper on that particular

tool/technique.

These techniques could include: AHP, ANP, GA,

Regression, Factor Analysis, SEM etc.

28

Use Proper Vocabulary and Terminology

Befitting to his/her areas of research.

A thumb rule is that a write up on the

Glossary of at least 50 concepts which are going to be used in the research must be prepared.

Prof NK Sharma is very particular about this !!

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List of at least 25 Good Journals

A list of at least 25 good journals along with their impact factors must be prepared.

This list must be utilized in communicating the research work.

The editorial policy and a sample of at

least 2-3 papers in these journals must be filed.

30

Visualize Contributions In any research work, the contributions are sought after. One

must visualize these contributions (from the eyes of his/her

examiners) first. These contributions could be:

Methodological contribution (devising a new

method/algorithm)

Critique of the existing literature (wherein an objective

assessment o the literature is done)

Borrowing concepts from one domain to another (like

Genetic algorithm borrowed from biology and applied to

engineering)

Combining apparently dissimilar ideas (from multiple

domains and synergizing these to one’s advantage) Visualize a bigger picture and be able to work on one or many

of the above. This will strengthen the research .

31

Learn to interpret & digest rejections

Rejection is part of the research process:

don’t get upset ! Take it in proper stride

“Unacceptable” or “Unacceptable in its present form”; seldom is the harsh word “reject” used

First, remind yourself that you have a lot of company;

most of the good journals have reject rates

approximately (or exceeding) 50%.

Second, read the reject letter carefully because there

are different types of rejections.

32

Learn to interpret & digest

rejections (Cont.)

Third type - you probably should consider the

necessary repairs/damage control

Second type - you should probably not resubmit

the same manuscript to the same journal, unless

you can make a convincing case to the editor.

First type - if the manuscript is really bad, you

probably should not resubmit it anywhere, for

fear that publication might damage your

reputation : revisit your concepts /models .

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Most common reasons for rejection of a manuscript

34

MOST COMMON REASONS FOR REJECTING ARTICLE MANUSCRIPTS

(Cited by 85 Editors of Scientific and Technical Journals)

Reason

Number of

Respondents

Subject

Not suitable for journal

Not timely

63

4

Coverage

Questionable significance

Questionable validity

Too shallow

Too exhaustive

55

39

39

8

Length

Too long

Too short

26

4

Presentation

Bad organization

Ineffective expression

Ineffective or unusable illustrations

Failure to follow style guide

35

33

11

4

Dangers!

Lack of patience

Expectation for quick outcomes

Isolation/sole worker

Suspicion about quality/quantity

False comparison and JEALOUSY!

Pressure of peripheral issues – Emotional Drain!

35

Remedy

Be Proactive

Be Sympathetic

Be Courageous

36

Remedy 1: Be Proactive!

Go through OLD THESIS

Entrepreneurial THRIVE

Interaction with GUIDE/MENTOR

Interaction with PEER-RESEARCH scholars

Learn from the mistakes of others – Attend pre-synopsis , synopsis seminars

37

Remedy 2: Be Sympathetic!

Failures and Fear are part of publications

Feeling drained of energy is OBVIOUS!

Receiving rejections is LEARNING!

Little irritation and agony are OBVIOUS!

Be sympathetic to yourself!

Celebrate each small achievement!

Share pain and gain !!

38

Remedy 3: Be Courageous!

Learn to DARE!

Think novel ideas and convert into

application!

Challenge/ Criticize views of other researchers!

Assertively support your work during your presentations!

39

Key!

Standardize (the process)

Reduce(waste)

Consolidate(your perspective)

40

UNDERSTAND YOUR RESEARCHING

TEMPERAMENT

41

Patience, Hardwork, Determination

Process, Humbleness, Diligence

Perseverance, Heart, Degree

Pressure, Heat, Dissipate

Passion, Humility, Dedication

One is encouraged to enlarge this list !!

Perspective ..

“There is no way to get experience except through experience”

You will master swimming only after start swimming by yourself !!

Keep writing, writing and writing !!

Source: dor.umc.edu/.../WritingandpublishingaresearcharticleAdair.ppt

Enhance citations Your audience no longer skim journal contents lists: they use internet searches Search engine robots search for KEY WORDS Include them in your title, repeat them in the abstract, and in section headings, all in as natural a way as possible. Also, cite your related publications and those that cite your work. Make a practice to cite work of fellow students from your dept/inst

How to Prepare a manuscript: Elsevier Author workshop

http://www.powershow.com/view/3a246-YjE3M/Elsevier_Author_Workshop_How_t

o_Prepare_a_Manuscript_for_an_International_Journal_powerpoint_ppt_

Writing in English as a foreign language

W.Strunk and E.B.White The Elements of Style

Recommended book…

Book by Stephen

Covey

Management guru

Systems orientation

https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php

Interesting course..

Crafting Research

Output [Executive

Fellow Program in

Management (EFPM)]

Instructors: Probir

Banerjee∗ , Abhradeep

Maiti

At IIM Kashipur

http://www.abhradeep

maiti.com/uploads/3/7

/2/8/37286347/cro_20

15_syllabus.pdf

Create your digital Identity Scopus Author Code : 17181009

ORCID identifier code: 0000-0002-7043-6948

ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-based effort to provide a

registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of

linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers http://orcid.org/content/about-orcid

Research gate/Academia

Online presence considerations

Use social media for your online identity

Lots of tips available (e.g. Online Research identity blog post)

Google scholar citation profiles

Understand the meaning of “Stand on the shoulders of giants..”

Submit to open source journals to get feedback ?

Mendeley : Useful tool

Mendeley is a free reference

Manager and academic social network that can help

organize research, collaborate with others online, and

discover the latest research. Automatically generate bibliographies

Collaborate easily with other researchers online

Easily import papers from other research software

Find relevant papers based on what you’re reading

Access your papers from anywhere online

www.mendeley.com

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Thanks a lot and Wishing you a productive publishing career! deshmukh.sg@gmail.com

http://www.slideshare.net/SanjeevDeshmukh/presentatio

ns?order=popular

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