The science of publishing

UR-LING Workshop Aurelio Ruiz. May 2014

http://es.linkedin.com/in/aurelioruiz

What is this talk about?

The science of publishing

This presentation is about my personal feelings, based on experience related to work with different research

groups.

It provides an overview and pointers to details.

It generates questions rather than provide answers…

But I have never published!!

The science of publishing

NOT a 10 tips to write a successful article

NOT a discussion about the way the scientific publishing industry works

The science of publishing

What I expect from you: After this talk,

you assess your own “relation” with

scientific publishing

There is not a single right approach

- Discuss specific issues with

peers / senior colleagues

- Build your own approach: Being aware

of how publishing works can be very

beneficial for your career the

implications of your choices affect

your career

Who we are

Servei de Recerca

Som uns FACILITADORS

els requeriments dels programes de finançament de la recerca

les normes de les institucions

les necessitats de l’investigador

Finançadors, programes

UP

F, adm

inistració

p

úb

lica

Estr

atèg

ia p

ròp

ia,

situ

ació

act

ual

Servei de Recerca

ESTRUCTURA CENTRALITZADA

Secció de suport a la política científica

Oficina de projectes

Secció de Gestió Econòmica

ESTRUCTURA DESCENTRALITZADA

Delegació Oficina de Projectes SdR Campus

Comunicació-Poblenou

Servei de Recerca i Unitat d'Innovació i Parcs Edifici Mercè Rodoreda C/Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27 08005 Barcelona http://www.upf.edu/rdi/

Servei de Recerca Edifici Tànger C/Roc Boronat, 138 08018 Barcelona Despatx 55.223 Aurelio Ruiz: Promotor Campus Barbara Albareda: Oficina de Projectes (baixa) Neus Balaguer: Oficina de Projectes Txema Farrona: Gestió Econòmica Manel Ronda: Gestió Econòmica Nom.cognom@upf.edu

TRAINING

Graduate, post-graduate and professional training Joint programs, national and international exchanges

In-house training Career development for students, including stays at companies (practicum, thesis, etc)

Innovation in teaching

RESEARCH Research training (PhD programs)

Public and private R&D calls (projects, human resources, infrastructures, research awards, etc)

Collaborative projects, industrial PhDs Tailor-made R&D projects for external entities

Prototyping and proof-of-concepts of new technologies and services Trend and business analysis in changing ICT, Health, Humanities and Social Sciences

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Access to spaces and specialized infrastructures to external parties Sponsorship, Social Responsibility

Specialized consulting Technological platforms

Direct technology and knowledge transfer (patents, open source, publications, etc) Cultural and artistic production

UPF activities

Assessment of

publication impact

Library Services

Bibliography manager: Mendeley. Next June 4th Seminar! http://www.upf.edu/intranet/cquid/formacio/3er_trimestre_201314/Fitxes/mendeley_comu2.html

Open Access (Repository)

UPF regulation / Recommendations

UPF activities: publications

Overview on scientific publishing

Motivation

Which is your motivation to publish?

Which is your motivation to do research?

Motivation

Which is your motivation to do research?

Advancement of knowledge IMPACT

New knowledge which is not integrated in the

research community is irrelevant

Motivation

Which is your motivation to do research?

New knowledge which is not integrated in the research community is irrelevant

State-of-the-art “information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date” - Am I aware of the global state-of-the-art? (including that outside my closer community) - Contributions to state-of-the-art are multiple: Results, methods, reviews, etc

Motivation

Which is your motivation to do research?

New knowledge which is not integrated in the research community is irrelevant

Public Research community.

Which is the most relevant (and complete) research community relevant

to my knowledge?

Where do top researchers in my area of knowledge publish?

Are there emerging areas of knowledge related to my work?

Motivation

Which is your motivation to do research?

New knowledge which is not integrated in the research community is irrelevant

• How you can be useful to others / Others can be useful for you? • What can you offer? • Why could they be interested in you / your results / your methods? • Who are the direct and indirect beneficiaries of your research? • Who do you need to conduct your research?

• Other skills • Infrastructures / Strategic providers • Requirements / feedback • Subjects for experiments • Visibility • Future employers!, etc...

• “Greater why”: get to know properly the wider area of knowledge (and who plays a role)

Motivation

Which is your motivation to do research?

New knowledge which is not integrated in the research community is irrelevant

Integration: Communication, validation,

replication, acceptance, use Publishing is the core system to streamline

this process

Motivation

Knowledge integrated

• Communication,

validation, replication, acceptance, use

Each field of knowledge has different

social norms

Get to know what is relevant for you

Public Research

community

Assessment

Get to know the system to maximize your

success (relative assessment against

peers)

Career advancement

Issues we will discuss

Motivation to do research

Motivation to publish

Who is your target community

Types of publications

Metrics

The process (stakeholders): - The author

- The reviewer - The reader - The journal

- Other stakeholders

Research data

Communication

Validation Replication Acceptance

Use

Individual work

(regularly updated)

The system

The system in given

area(s) of knowledge / career

paths

Relevance of assessment

We are judged by what we finish, not by what we start.

We are judged by what we achieve, not by what we do.

Own assessment

All profiles in research are very qualified

In terms of fundraising / career plans, absolute assessment is not useful Relative to competitors (not just from my field!)

What is special in our CV with respect to equivalent peers?

How to write a successful article

How to write an article

• Write early and often: do not wait until you have the results / chosen the journal

• Planning is more effective if it starts from the end

• Which are the publications I plan to submit based on my current work? Draft

different working titles. Think about the required intermediate steps to conduct the

research.

• Does the work have the potential to lead to a single publication, or to a series of

papers? Does it have any interest to generate some other material?

• Where could I publish?

• And where not? Why?

Planning an article: Logical Framework Approach

Resources

Activities

Results

Project purpose

Greater Why

WHAT FOR: This is the specific impact my publication aims at making. From

all the problems, which is the one I address? (which difference does this

publication bring among peers? Why should it be published against the other

competitors?).

WHAT: This is typically the contribution

THIS TYPICALLY DETERMINES THE MOST ADEQUATE PUBLISHER

HOW: Methodology

HOW MUCH / WHO: Determines authorship

WHY: Context analysis (area I contribute in). Overall state-of-the-art and

macro-tendencies. This should be relatively stable, and continuously updated

as my standard framework (my discipline may evolve, I may want to change,

etc)

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/multimedia/publications/documents/tools/europeaid_adm_pcm_guidelines_2004_en.pdf

How to write an article

• What is the purpose of my thinking?

• What precise question am I trying to answer?

• Within what point of view am I thinking?

• What information am I using?

• How am I interpreting that information?

• What concepts or ideas are central to my thinking?

• What conclusions am I coming to?

• What am I taking for granted, what assumptions am I

making?

• If I accept the conclusions, what are the implications?

• What would the consequences be, if I put my thought into

action?

https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-identifying-the-targets/486

Type of publications

Type of publications

Publisher

• Peer-reviewed journals and books

• Non peer-reviewed journals and books

• Conference presentations (peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed –

organized or not by scholarly associations) and/or published in proceedings

/ Posters

• Reports commissioned by external organisations

• Promotional reports and materials on research

• Articles in the popular press and other media, including blogs and science

fora

• Publication in web-based journals and project web sites

• Patents

Variability in content / scope

• Research article, systematic review, meta-analysis, case-study, editorial,

opinion article, technical paper, technical note, etc

NOT ALL PUBLICATIONS HAVE THE SAME RELEVANCE FOR A GIVEN

TARGET (FOR INSTANCE, ACADEMIC LIFE)

Type of publications

How to choose: Who do you want to read your paper?

- Get inspired by the top researchers in your (wide) area of research:

- Where do they publish?

- What type of articles?

- How do you keep track of the state-of-the-art? What do you usually read?

- Journal ranks and status: Impact-factor (normalised citations of an indexed

journal over a period of time) / prestige in your field. Specially in humanities the

impact factor is to be handle with great care (as variabilities are not high)

- Adequacy to content / target reader. Browse the journals:

- Type of content recently published

- References in your own work

- Type of publication: professional, academic, multi-disciplinary, applied,

electronic (Blaxter et al, Writing on academic careers)

- Quality of your work, co-authors

- Read their instructions for authors

- Check timelines for review and rejection rates

- Check publication and copyright policy

Impact factor

Índexs per valorar les revistes de Ciències Socials i Humanes

http://www.upf.edu/bibtic/guiesiajudes/eines/avalua/rcsh.htm

Metrics

Metrics

Communication Validation Replication Acceptance

Use

http://thomsonreuters.com/products/ip-science/04_030/using-bibliometrics-a-guide-to-evaluating-research-performance-with-citation-data.pdf

H-index: reflects

productivity and

impact

- Reduce the

weight of highly-

cited papers

Journal impact

factor: average

citations of

articles in a

journal in 2 years

Hierarchies of

journals across

areas

Percentile

indicators:

relative

Metrics

Communication Validation Replication Acceptance

Use

http://wokinfo.com/media/mtrp/UsingBibliometricsinEval_WP.pdf

Understand correctly what they measure

(for instance, journal metrics cannot be used at article level)

Multi-authors: metrics do not give any information about author

contribution (first author, or one among 100 co-authors?)

Compare apples with apples:

- Field definition: self-description of area, area to which journals

where she publishes are assigned to

- Date of publication

- Career stage

Metrics

Bibliometrics do not substitute peer evaluation!

Bibliometrics provide numbers to support

(potentially biased) peer assessment

Just one metric is incomplete to measure a complex phenomenom such as scholarly impact

http://wokinfo.com/media/mtrp/UsingBibliometricsin

Eval_WP.pdf

http://thomsonreuters.com/products/ip-

science/04_030/using-bibliometrics-a-guide-to-

evaluating-research-performance-with-citation-

data.pdf

Metrics

There are a lot of scientific papers out there. One estimate puts the count at 1.8

million articles published each year, in about 28,000 journals. Who actually reads

those papers? According to one 2007 study, not many people: half of academic

papers are read only by their authors and journal editors, the study's authors

write.

But not all academics accept that they have an audience of three. There's a

heated dispute around academic readership and citation—enough that there

have been studies about reading studies going back for more than two decades.

(…)

“Academia’s incentive structure is such that it’s better to publish something than

nothing,”(…) the ways that the internet is letting academics see more accurately

who is reading and citing their papers. “Since the turn of the century, dozens of

databases such as Scopus and Google Scholar have appeared, which allow the

citation patterns of academic papers to be studied with unprecedented speed

and ease,”

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/half-academic-studies-are-never-read-more-three-people-180950222/?no-ist?no-ist

Bibliometric tools

https://dspace.ndlr.ie/jspui/bitstream/10633/27360/5/Choose%20your%20product%20decision%20chart.pdf

Metrics

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/impacts/TypologyofResearchImpacts.pdf

Other impacts lack universal metric: it does not mean that they cannot be assessed

Metrics

http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es/portal/site/MICINN/menuitem.8ce192e94ba842bea3bc811001432ea0/?vgnextoid=1a

24e5e169b51210VgnVCM1000001034e20aRCRD

Stakeholders

The author

Bibliometrics

Information automatically retrieved by

machines Importance of data integrity

At level of author At the level of affiliation

Correct use of references

The author: consistency

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/why-you-should-do-more-than-simply-

claiming-your-orcid-id/

Why You Should Do More Than Simply Claiming Your ORCID ID

http://www.upf.edu/bibtic/novetats/140306.html

http://guiesbibtic.upf.edu/orcid

Campanya ORCID UPF

Author name standardization very relevant for automatic retrieval of information

In addition, ORCID provides an unique idenitifier

The author: ethics

http://www.prbb.org/system/uploads/attachment/file/3/ca/CBPC_PRBB_CAT_CAST_ENG.PDF

Code of good scientific practice PRBB

http://www.upf.edu/universitat/planificacio/codi_etic.pdf

Codi ètic de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Who should be an author? To fully meet the criteria of author of a publication

or patent, an individual must a) have made a substantial contribution to the

creative process, that is, to the conception and design of the study, or to the

analysis and interpretation of the data; b) have contributed to the preparation of

the communications, reports, or publications that have arisen; and c) be able to

present in detail his or her contribution to the project and to discuss the main

aspects of the overall research. Authors must provide signed acceptance of the

final version of original manuscripts submitted for publication or registration.

It is unacceptable to claim or grant undeserved authorship or deny deserved

authorship. (…) Unjustified claims of authorship and ghost authorship are forms

of falsification

http://www.esf.org/fileadmin/Public_documents/Publications/Code_Conduct_ResearchIntegrity.pdf

The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

The author: ethics

Variation among research fields, no universal set of standards but ethics codes

http://www.elsevier.com/ethics/toolkit

The author: other issues

Correct affiliation

Recommendations for author name and affiliation standardization in UPF's

scientific output

http://www.upf.edu/bibtic/en/serveis/suport/filiacio/

Your career will be influenced by group, department and university prestige.

Other acknowledgements:

• Recognition to other’s contributions: provision of data, reviews, etc

• Acknowledgement to funders

“"The presented work was made possible by the Marie Curie Initial Training

Network (ACRONYM), financed by the FP7 of the European Commission

(contract-Nº XXX)."”

The reviewer

The rewiev(er)

Reviewers are just peers.

Think about yourself as a

potential reviewer:

- What do you expect to

read? Level of rigour?

- Be polite, learn from

feedback (even if

disencouraging)

Publishers

Openness

http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/healthyself/

Copyright policies, open access self-archiving policies and open access publishing

options. This is also a decision you make

Openness

‘Gold’ open access (open access publishing): payment of publication costs is shifted

from readers (via subscriptions) to authors. These costs are usually borne by the

university or research institute to which the researcher is affiliated, or by the funding

agency supporting the research

‘Green’ open access (self-archiving): the published article or the final peer-reviewed

manuscript is archived by the researcher in an online repository before, after or

alongside its publication. Access to this article is often delayed (‘embargo period’) at

the request of the publisher so that subscribers retain an added benefit.

Institutional repository

Thematic repositories (http://arxiv.org/)

Also address allowing early access

http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/era-

communication-towards-better-access-to-scientific-information_en.pdf

Other stakeholders

UPF library

http://www.upf.edu/bibtic/en/serveis/

Marketing

Market your publications, nobody is going to make it for you:

- If your results could be of interest at UPF level, or for the media, let the Communication

Unit at UPF know. You can facilitate their interest if you can relate your results to any

relevant issue

- Make your publications available Open Access http://repositori.upf.edu/

If you would like to deposit a document in the e-Repository, please contact the Library by

email at repositori@upf.edu or by telephone at 93 542 17 27

and keep you CV at UPF continuously updated

- Create those profiles which could be relevant for you:

- Scopus, WoS researcherID

- Google Scholar

- Social Networks such as ResearchGate

-They in addition easily allow you to track new citations of your work (and identify

potential future collaborators)

- Let your colleagues know, directly, posting in shared webs (group, department, etc),

ideally with the direct link to an open access publication

- Could it be of interest for any professional publication? Give a try

- Present your work at conferences, seminars…. Publishing it does not guarantee that it is

effectively read!

Data management

Why? Own reuse, external reuse (even condition to use other’s data), support to

our publications (reproducibility / citation), precondition from funding agencies

•What types of data do you generate/collect?

• Types: Text, numerical, multimedia, models, software, discipline specific,

instrument specific

• Objects: Documents, spreadsheets, questionnaires, transcripts,

audiotapes, videotapes, photographs, films, samples, data files,

methodologies, workflows, procedures, protocols….

• Records: Ethics applications, consent forms, publications, reports, etc…

• Processes: observational, experimental, simulations, derived or compiled,

reference or canonical

• What standards do you use?

• How will this data be exploited and/or shared/made accessible for verification

and re-use? If data cannot be made available, why?

• How will this data be curated and preserved?

http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=9

Summary

Publishing is joining a “conversation” Get to know:

- What you have to say

- Who is interested in it

- Which is the best way to reach them and generate further conversation

Generate your own approach

Your participation in this conversation will be continuously assessed:

- Keep regular track of your (and other’s) contribution

- Understand the metrics, and which are favourable to your targets

- Use the resources available to you

- Senior colleagues

- Collaborators

- University support

When closing this presentation….

In this new series — “How to Prepare a Manuscript for International Journals” — a

seasoned editor gives advice to boost your chances of acceptance

Six things to do before writing your manuscript

1. Think about why you want to publish your work – and whether it's publishable.

2. Decide what type of the manuscript to write.

3. Choose the target journal.

4. Pay attention to journal requirements in the Guide for Authors.

5. Pay attention to the structure of the paper.

6. Understand publication ethics to avoid violations.

Closing advice

• As you prepare your manuscript, there are some basic principles you should always

keep in mind:

• Cherish your own work – if you do not take care, why should the journal?

• There is no secret recipe for success – just some simple rules, dedication and hard

work.

• Editors and reviewers are all busy scientists, just like you. Make things easy to save

them time.

http://www.elsevier.com/connect/six-things-to-do-before-writing-your-manuscript?sf2913695=1

Q&As

Thank you