Principles of scientific publishing

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LESSONS IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING

Transcript of Principles of scientific publishing

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LESSONS IN SCIE

NTIFIC

PUBLISHING

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SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING MODULES1. Searching PubMed & Beyond2. Saving & Organizing Your References3. 4 Simple Steps to an effective literature review 4. Maintain Academic Integrity in Your Writing5. Ensuring Article Discoverability and Attention6. Journal Selection, Style, and Formatting7. Submitting Your Manuscript8. The Peer Review Process9. How to Promote Your Article

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SEARCHING PUBMED &

BEYOND

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GO BEYOND PUBMED 1. Using your library databases to identify relevant literature

[Robin] 1.PubMed2.Scopus3.Web of Science

2. Tips for literature review searches using Scopus Define keywords Begin with a simple search Survey the latest publications

Survey references Look at highly cited papers

Survey citing articles Look for review papers (if there are any)

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SAVING AND

ORGANIZING YOUR

REFERENCES

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SAVE & ORGANIZE YOUR FINDINGS – IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!Using reference managers to save, annotate, summarize and organize yourfindings

** EndNote highlights – Barnaby Nicolas :*** REfWorks – Barnaby Nicolas*** Mendeley, Zotero and other social ref managers

Collect your annotations from each article and construct a summary per each

publication and ask yourself the following questions What is important in the selected article? Why should it be included in the literature review? How is it relevant to your findings / study framework

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WRITING AN EFFECTIV

E

LITERATURE REVIEW IN

4

SIMPLE STEPS

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN Define which literature review you need to write: What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy? quantitative research?

What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g., journals, books, government

documents, popular media)? What discipline am I working in? Is this should be a selective or comprehensive review?

Why? Because a well defined and scoped review will make it easier to find the

right resources and construct a good argument for your paper.

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REVIEW YOUR FINDINGS

Once you searched and selected the resources that you would like to use

1. Critically analyze and summarize each one for better organization2. Review your summaries and check if they answer the following

questions: Do they capture the  specific thesis, problem, or research

question that my literature review helps to define? How good was my information seeking? Has my search been wide

enough to ensure I've found all the relevant material? Have I critically analyzed the literature I use? Have I cited and

discussed studies contrary to my perspective? Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and

useful?

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CATEGORIZE YOUR FINDINGS Organize the articles you deem important in logical groups and

ask yourself the following: Should I present prior findings / studies by year? Should I present prior findings / studies by methodology? Should I present prior findings by theme as they pertain to my

study?

The answer depends on the type of review you are writing for example: A review article will benefit from a chronological presentation A methodological study will benefit from a review organized by

methodologies An article describing the results of an experiment will benefit from a

review organized by themed findings by year

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CREATE A SUMMARY TABLE Create a separate document / table with the articles you found

organized byGroups

Reference Main reason to include Main point to note in the literature review

The Guide to Community Preventative Services: The Community Guide What Works to Promote Health. Increasing Appropriate Vaccination: Vaccination Programs in Schools and Organized Child Care Centers

Prior public vaccinations practices

Guidelines for community driven vaccinations

W.H. Barker, N.M. Bennett, F.M. LaForce, E.C. Waltz, L.B. Weiner“McFlu”. The Monroe County, New York, Medicare vaccine demonstrationAm. J. Prev. Med., 16 (Suppl. 3) (1999), pp. 118–127

 

Bechtol, 2008Z. BechtolLaunching a community-wide flu vaccination planFam. Pract. Manag., 15 (8) (2008), pp. 19–22

 

N.M. Bennett, B. Lewis, A.S. Doniger, et al.A coordinated, communitywide program in Monroe County, New York, to increase influenza immunization rates in the elderlyArch. Intern. Med., 154 (15) (1994), pp. 1741–1745 (Aug 8, PM:8042891)

Prior collaborations to administer vaccinations to the public

 

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN WRITING…Beware of Thesaurusitis…

It’s a condition..Often seizes young writers who wish to impress

their readers. These writers use a thesaurus to look up

many of the words they have written and then substitute the longest words they can

find

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MAINTA

IN ACADEMIC

INTEGRITY IN

YOUR

WRITING

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WHEN IN DOUBT… CITE!Did you

think of it?

YES

Don’t Cite it

NO

Is it common knowledg

e? YES

NO

Cite it

Adopted from Harris, Robert A. Using sources effectively: Strengthening your writing and avoiding plagiarism. Pyrczak Pub, 2005.

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CHOOSING ONE OR MORE OF THE ACTIVITIES BELOW WILL ENSURE YOUR WRITING INTEGRITY

Paraphrasing CitingQuoting

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PARAPHRASING - EXPRESSING THE MEANING OF A WRITING IN YOUR OWN WORDS

You should consider paraphrasing when you need to: Create an emphasis Simplify the material Clarify the material

Best ways to paraphrase1. Read the source passage several times2. Outline the passage3. Rearrange the outline to align with your writing goal4. Use the same number of words (more or less)5. Make sure you preserve the meaning

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CITING.. . YOU WILL WANT THAT FOR YOURSELF You have to cite someone else’s : Words you quote, summarize or paragraph Interpretation of ideas, opinions or conclusions Data, graphs, photographs, drawings, Experiment, methodologies, surveys or concepts

There are several citation styles that are used in the academic arena for example:

APA MLA Chicago

** be familiar with the journal’s style and edit your document accordingly

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QUOTING

If you use someone’s exact words, remember to quote them by using quotation marks and referencing the source

You should use quotation when Embedding an expert declaration Reinforcing a point Giving a specific example

Don’t .. Use quotes too often – it will cloud your own ideas Quote one source too many times Use too long quotes

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DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN PLAGIARIZE YOURSELF?

It happens whenan author reuses portions of their previous writings in subsequent

research papers. Occasionally, the derived paper is simply a re-titled and reformatted version of the original one, but more frequently it is assembled from bits and pieces of previous work. (keble.ox.ac.uk)

It’s also called ‘self recycling

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TOOLS TO HELP YOU CHECK YOUR TEXT INTEGRITY

iThenticate http://www.ithenticate.com/

Some Free tools Anti-Plagiarism DupliChecker PaperRater Plagiarisma.net PlagiarismChecker

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WRITING A TITLEChoose an effective title: Condenses the paper’s content in a few words Captures the readers’ attention - Differentiates the paper from

other papers of the same subject areaTips to keep in mind while writing a title: Keep it simple, brief and attractive: The primary function of a title

is to provide a precise summary of the paper’s content. So keep the title brief and clear.

Use active verbs instead of complex noun-based phrases, and avoid unnecessary details.

Keep the title to 10 to 12 words long. A lengthy title may seem unfocused and take the readers’ attention away from an important point.

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KEYWORDS- - THE KEY TO BEING DISCOVERED

Tips to choosing the right keywords for your paper: Read through your paper and list down the terms/phrases that

are used repeatedly in the text. Ensure that this list includes all your main key terms/phrases Include variants of a term/phrase (e.g., kidney and renal), drug

names, procedures, etc. Include common abbreviations of terms (e.g., HIV). Before you submit your article, type your keywords into a

search engine and check if the results that show up match the subject of your paper.

Ensure that your title, abstract, and any images/graphics make use of relevant keywords.

Read similar articles and consult the keywords

MeSh on Demand http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MeSHonDemand.html MeSH Browser http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/mbinfo.html

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WRITING A ‘MARKETABLE” ABSTRACT IN 5 SIMPLE STEPS

The abstract should work like a marketing tool: It should help the reader decide “whether there is something in the body of the paper worth reading

by providing a quick and accurate summary of the entire paper explaining why the research was conducted, what the aims were, how these were met, and what

the main findings were.

Pick out the major objectives/hypotheses and conclusions from your Introduction and Conclusion sections.

Select key sentences and phrases from your Methods section. Reveal your findings by listing the major results from your Results section. State a major implication of your findings Arrange the sentences and phrases selected in steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 into a single

paragraph in the following sequence: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusions.Make sure that this paragraph is self-contained

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JOURNAL SELECTIO

N,

STYLE AND FORMATTING

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SELECTING THE RIGHT JOURNAL DEPENDS ON YOUR GOALTo get published quickly: Check the journal website for average peer review time, average speed of

publication and whether they offer online pre-publication option. If you cant find any of this information, use the pre-submission inquiries process and send a cover letter and abstract to the editor asking whether the journal will review your article

To be published in the highest possible impact factor journal Check the journal website for its impact factor score and compare it to

others in your field To reach the largest possible audience Check the open access options available, promotional tools offered and

the readership and circulation statistics if available

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TIPS & TOOLS TO HELP YOU SELECT A JOURNAL

Tips for selecting a journal: Look at the references you used – these journals are the closest to your area of

study Examine the citations these articles received Perform a search on scientific databases using keywords that describe your

study and examine the journals they are published in

Tools to help you select a journal: Edanz Journal Selector =http://www.edanzediting.com/journal_selector PubMed Reminer http://hgserver2.amc.nl/cgi-bin/miner/miner2.cgi Journal Article Name Estimator (Jane) =http://www.biosemantics.org/jane/ Cofactor Journal selector = http://cofactorscience.com/journal-selector

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CONSULT THE JOURNAL WEBPAGE Scope & goals

Before submitting an article make sure its goals and scope fit your publication

Editorial board Familiarize yourself with the editorial board and make sure they

have the credentials stated Read previously published papers and see if your publication fits Preparing the article according to the guidelines saves time!

Read the guidelines for authors – each journal publisher has different formatting requirements.

Journal style Formatting requirements

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BE CAREFUL OF PREDATORY PUBLISHING

www.cdnsciencepub.com

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PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT Using reference managers to help you format your bibliography –

EndNote & REFWORKS for bibliography management  

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SUBMITTING YOUR

MANUSCRIPT

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SUBMISSION SYSTEMS Allow you to: Submit and track your article as it goes through peer review Upload paper revisions and answers to reviewers Reviews peers’ works (by invitation)

Each journal has its own editorial / submission management tool

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TO MAKE SUBMISSION SMOOTHER Read the instructions carefully – some journals will ask you to submit

tables and figures separately from the main document for example Submit only to one journal at a time Write a cover letter to the editor – let the editor know:

Title and name/s of the author/s Why you believe the article fits the scope of the journal Highlight some specific points to reinforce the novelty and significance of

the research Your hope that it will be accepted and say you look forward to the

reviewers comments

Be brief – cover letters should not be more than 4 short paragraphs

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THE PEER REVIEW

PROCESS

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GET READY…After the editor considers your manuscript for inclusion, he/she will

send it to a few reviewers. Then you should expect one of the following decisions

Paper accepted – (lets get real… it almost never happens) Accepted Pending Minor Revisions

These are usually minor edits and / or formatting Accepted Pending Major Revisions

These usually include revisions to the datasets, methodology or major re-writing

Rejected This could be a result of major deficiencies in the article, poor writing or

out of scope for the journal

And most importantly …..

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WHEN RESUBMITTING A REVISED DOCUMENT Address every comment raised by the editor or by the

reviewers Correct, edit or rewrite any parts you were asked to Usually it is not a good idea to argue or be defensive unless it’s an

obvious mistake on their part Create a new document where you list the comment of the

reviewer and how you addressed it Do not waste time to figure out who your reviewers were Have your co-authors or peers review your revised article

and give you feedback or comments before resubmitting

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HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR

ARTICLE

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WHY PUBLISHING IS NOT ENOUGH M E A S U R I N G S C I E N T I F I C I M P A C T

Number of citations Number of views Number of

downloads Its overall impact in

the world (including social networks)

R E S E A R C H E V A L U A T I O N S Y S T E M S

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STRATEGIES TO GET YOUR ARTICLE NOTICED Submit your paper to conferences – even as a poster!

conferences organizers list presentations and posters online and those are discoverable via search engines

Use Publishers’ Email signature Tools Email signature

http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/beyondpublication/promotearticle.asp

Consider Open access options Deposit to Repositories

Between 50-80% of traffic to institutional repositories come from Google (remember your keywords?)

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WORK THE SOCIAL NETWORKS Twitter and Facebook: authors are increasingly promoting their content via

Twitter and Facebook so it can be picked up by other researchers and practitioners

LinkedIn: If you have created a LinkedIn profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments, why not include a mention of your articles?

Join academic social networking sites such as Academia.edu, where you can also post details of your publications.

Discussion lists: post a short message to any discussion list.

Blogs: if you blog, don't forget to inform other users about your article.

Post presentation slides on Slideshare or Figshare YouTube: Consider producing a short video or audio recording in which you briefly

outline the scope of your paper.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC PROFILESYour academic and professional profiles help you promote you

and your Work

We recommend using ORCID since it’s directly linked and updates through Scopus and PLUM Analytics