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.
19
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
26
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 !!
29
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 .
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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 .
33
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 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
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_
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! [email protected]
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