Publishing in journals

Nick Sangster

Faculty of Veterinary Science

I am the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Parasitology

and this talk is information gained during my editorship.

It is my opinion and other people may have different opinions.

The IJP• Sponsored by the Australian Society for Parasitology• Editorial office in Fac of Vet Science, Univ of Sydney• 30 Specialist Editors in 13 countries• Authors from over 100 countries• Increasing trend for multi-nation papers• All papers peer refereed• Impact factor 2.88 meaning …• 14 issues per year, web and printed• For published papers mean time from submission to acceptance = 61 days• Editor-in-Chief has complete editorial control• Review articles and Thematic issues• Elsevier publishes and allows special access to scientists in developing

nations and special research groups.

Editor’s backgound

• Veterinary Science

• Clinical Science

• Parasitology, esp. helminthology

• Teach protozoology, ectoparasitology

• Research in biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology and therapeutics

• Training in statistics and epidemiology

Let’s compare how “true” a range of publications are:

• Newspapers

• Magazines

• University teaching notes

• Specialist Magazines

• Scientific Journals

Scientific publication

• Reputable journals

• Peer review (refereeing) process

• Editor who knows the field

• Editor is independent

• Careful checking

• Contract between author and journal

• Copyright of article

Types of scientific publications

• Non-refereed– General review and popular science– Industry journals– Reports (but may be endorsed by authorities)– Electronic/printed summaries of papers– Conference abstracts– Books– Text books

Types of scientific publications

• Refereed– Primary research papers (original data)– Case reports (primary)– Meta data (take existing data and reanalyse)– Review (interpretation of literature)– Clinical review– Open access (refereed, author pays, but access

to readers is free on the web)

Sources differ in freshness

Type of publication Immediacy

At the bench/field Immediate

Conference presentation Month

Electronic journal Months

Refereed research paper Several Months

Refereed review paper Months-years

Book Years to decades

The future of scientific publishing

• Electronic (searched by keyword)

• Links to supplementary data, gene, microarray, proteomic databases

• Reader pays (Open access – author pays)

• Rapid production

• Peer refereed

• In English

The peer review process (IJP)• Takes 1-2 months (by email or web)• Editors find at least 2, referees with different backgrounds• Referees should be peers but independent of the authors and

their institutions• Refereeing is confidential• Referees check the paper for:

Title, historical context, content, accuracy, completeness, experimental design, suitability of techniques, analysis, validity, rigour, conclusions, writing, ethics, slant, bias.

• EiC has final decision and may consult further• We accept just 25% of papers submitted• The system is not perfect, but it is pretty good

After review

• The paper is corrected by the EiC (writing, remove ‘maybes’ and ‘possiblys’)

• It might be sent to an expert to check the stats• Corrected by authors and rechecked• Proofs sent to author for checking• Final corrections• Paper posted on the web• Paper printed and listed in databases

Electronic trail for 1 paper

How do you compare peer reviewed journals

• Impact factor– Reflects how often papers from a journal are cited in

subsequent papers in all journals.

– IJP = 2.881

– Trends in Parasitology = 6.788

– AVJ = 0.668

• Electronic downloads– 20,000 electronic copies of IJP papers are downloaded

each month

What matters about a journal

• Journals do vary in quality.• Is it peer reviewed?• It contains what you need to read.• The AVJ is not so widely cited but is widely read. • Impact factors reflect the size and activity of a

research field.• They are valid comparator within a field.• You might consider a journal that assists with

English. (eg. Vet Para., Parasitology)

Getting your work published 1.

• Make sure your work:– Addresses an important issue– Tests a hypothesis– Is well designed, including replication and

controls– The techniques are sound– You obey rules on ethics (animal, human, gene

manipulation)

Getting your work published 2.

• Before you start:– Search the literature for other work in the field

– Develop a reference database (eg. ENDNOTE)

• Then– Analyse your results with appropriate methods

– Draw conclusions that are supported by the results

– Prepare tables and Figures of the results

– Consider the broader issues

Getting your work published 3.

• Decide on a journal that has a suitable:– Readership (look at other papers in the journal)– Look at the impact factor and quality– Different work will have different impact

• Read the guidelines• Contact the Editor if you are in doubt• Do you need help with English? – some journals

will help with your writing(Publishing in English word journals is essential)

How a paper is structured

• Title• Authors and addresses• Abstract• Keywords• Introduction• Materials and Methods• Results (including Figures and tables)• Discussion• Acknowledgements• References

Title etc.

• The words in the title, address, keywords and abstract are added to databases.

• For Keywords use same categories as Medline• Decide on authors before you write a paper• The first author is the one who writes the first copy• Only people who made direct contributions should

be authors• The Abstract is the most important part of the paper

Introduction

• Give the overall picture

• Cite the particular problem

• Say how you are approaching it, state your hypothesis

• (Briefly provide your conclusions)

Methods

• Keep in a logical order (Materials then methods)• Give clear descriptions• Detail should be enough for a skilled person with

the same materials to repeat the work• Include ethics approval details• Give your statistical methods including replication• For some journals methods go in Figure legends

Results

• Present results in a logical order, the same as the M&M

• Do not repeat your method descriptions• Choose the data that you will present.• Tables should be clear• Figures - the best you can make and have large labels• Colour printing generally costs money• Some journals allow additional material (eg. videos) to

go onto their website.

Discussion

• Start with a comment on whether your methods and analysis were appropriate to test your hypothesis?

• Discuss your results, preferably in the order they appear, then link them to each other

• Compare your data with other published work • Draw your conclusions based on the whole body of

knowledge.• Say how to proceed from here, what is your new

hypothesis• Make broad comments on the impact of your work.

Writing style

• Write in direct language. ‘We then investigated…’• Use past tense • Do not use vague words, especially two together (We

thought that maybe…something was possible and could contribute…’)

• Use one idea per sentence and one topic per paragraph.

• Keep sentences short.• Interpret your data without bias• Be honest.

Submitting your paper

• Most papers have web-based submission

• The web is used to correspond with authors too

• Have your details and files (authors, addresses, Abstract, Paper, Figures and tables) ready.

So…

• Read widely, the IJP is a good journal and, I hope, and example of excellence

• Submit where you think best• If your paper is rejected it may be published in

another journal• Seek collaborators in research and in writing.• Employ English writers until you gain confidence• Good luck