How to Get Your Paper Published

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How to Get Your Paper Published

• Editor-in-Chief
• Jeff Szer
• Internal Medicine Journal
• jeff.szer_at_mh.org.au
• Deputy editors-in chief Joe McCormack
• Zoltan Endre
• Journal Manager
• Virginia Savickis
• virginia.savickis_at_racp.edu.au

http//www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/imj/
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Why write?
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Structure
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Structure
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Overview

• What to look for in a Journal
• Journal scope and content
• How to prepare and submit your paper
• Post acceptance publication process

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Background to IMJ

• First published in 1971
• Was Aust NZ J Med until 2001 and Annals of
  Australasian Medicine prior to that.
• Went fully electronic about 18 months ago and
  monthly 2 years ago.
• Published 229 reviewed papers in 2006

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To which journal should you send your manuscript

• Is your paper within the scope of the journal?
• Does the journal reach an audience appropriate
  for your research?
• What is the quality of other papers published?
• How easy is electronic submission?
• Will your paper be published online?
• How quickly will your paper appear in print?

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How much should you worry about journal impact
factors?

• They are important in some countries and quite
  irrelevant in others (IMJ 1.402 BMT2.62 for
  2006)
• Obviously if you can get your paper into Blood
  (10.4) or J Clin Oncol (13.6), it may reach a
  wide audience
• Speed of processing your paper and focus of
  journal readership may be more important than IF.

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Journal scope and content

• IMJ publishes under the following headings

• Editorials
• Review articles
• Original articles
• Current controversies
• Brief communications
• Personal viewpoints

• Letters to the Editor
• General correspondence
• Book Reviews
• Meeting Reports

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Commissioned Editorials and Reviews

• Reviews are commissioned by the Editor and Senior
  Editors
• There is scope for expression of personal views
• Should serve as an authoritative reference and
  thus should cover all recent advances
• References should be complete and include all
  important papers in the area
• Submitted reviews are still peer-reviewed

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What are Journal Editors looking for?

• Novel or original findings
• Credibility
• Clarity of data and conclusions
• Interesting to the international community
• Brevity

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What are Journal Editors looking for?

• Novel or original findings
• Credibility
• Clarity of data and conclusions
• Interesting to the international community
• Brevity
• Good standard of English (seek help if necessary)
• Compliance with ethical standards and approval by
  Institutional Review Board if appropriate
• Disclosure of any possible conflicts of interests
  by all authors
• References complete and up-to-date
• GET THEM RIGHT

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How do Journals make decisions?

• Originality
• Importance
• Methods correct
• Interesting to readers
• Many good papers get rejected

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Editors like

• Clear research questions
• Messages that matter
• Brevity and clarity in writing
• Good abstract
• Good grammar and spelling
• Clear presentation of methods and results

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Editors dont like

• Unoriginal research
• Very long papers (gt 3,000 words)
• Incorrect or flawed research methods
• Unrepresentative samples
• Non-randomised interventions

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Some reasons for rejection

• Unoriginal research
• Very long papers (gt 3,000 words)
• Incorrect or flawed research methods
• Unrepresentative samples
• Non-randomised interventions
• Research question not important
• Study not original
• Ethical approval not obtained
• Incorrect methods used
• Unrepresentative sample
• Sample size too small
• Problems with recruiting patients
• Paper very badly written

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When you submit you should

• Read the Instructions to Authors
• Check that you have included all persons who
  expect to be co-authors in the correct
  sequence. You must also ensure at this stage that
  all authors agree to the submission
• Confirm that your paper is not under
  consideration by another journal
• Draw the Editors attention to the existence of
  any similar version of the data that might be in
  press or already published. The Editor will
  probably agree to consider for publication papers
  containing data that have already appeared in an
  unreviewed format, e.g. meeting abstracts

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How to Prepare Submit your Paper

• Regular manuscripts submitted to the journal
  usually follow a standard format, summarised as
  follows
• Title page followed by keywords
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgements
• References (Vancouver format)
• Tables
• Figures

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Title
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How not to turn off editors/reviewers

• Read the instructions and do it properly
• Number pages
• Separate the sections
• Double space
• Keep spelling/abbreviations consistent and
  reasonable
• Get the references right
• Journal abbreviation formatting
• Volume numbers or not
• Pages

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How to Prepare Submit your Paper

• As you prepare to up-load your paper to the
  IMJ Manuscript Central website ensure that you
  have available
• All authors names, mail and e-mail addresses
• The complete manuscript with Tables and Figures
  in appropriate format
• A cover letter mentioning any additional
  information that may be helpful for the Editor
• Name of corresponding author with full address,
  e-mail address and telephone number

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Peer review process

• On submission of manuscripts, you will receive an
  acknowledgment. The manuscript is then assigned
  to the appropriate specialty editor who
• Determines if the manuscript is within the scope
  of the Journal
• Assesses if the paper is good enough to be sent
  out for review, and then
• Selects three experts to review the manuscript
  for scientific quality
• Based in part on the reviewers reports, he/she
  makes an initial decision to accept, to reject or
  to ask for revision

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Editorial response to corresponding author

• The initial editorial decision is sent to the
  corresponding author by e-mail
• Immediate acceptance is quite rare
• The email letter usually says either
• Your paper may be acceptable if you revise it, or
• Your paper is unacceptable but it may be accepted
  if you re- submit after revision
• Your paper is not acceptable
• If asked to revise, there might be a time limit
  on resubmission
• If you resubmit, the paper will probably be sent
  for review again. You may be asked to carry out
  further revision

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When you re-submit

• You must include a covering letter indicating how
  you have responded to each point raised by the
  editor and reviewers. The best way to do this is
  simply to repeat in your letter each of the
  reviewers comments in italics and follow each
  with your own response. Any changes you have
  incorporated into the revised manuscript should
  be highlighted by using a typeface other than
  black.
• Even if you judge the reviewer to be incompetent
  or not to have understood your paper, use
  temperate language!
• Dont hesitate to contact the editorial office
  if you have heard nothing after say 4 weeks.
  Errors do occur and it is not unheard of for
  manuscripts to get lost in the electronic system
  (though not of course with IMJ!)

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Editorial response to corresponding author

• If you resubmit, the paper will probably be sent
  for review again. You may be asked to carry out
  further revision
• Acceptance!! (not guaranteed)
• You could be asked for further revision
• Rejection is still possible at this stage

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After acceptance - online early and online
accepted and print version

• Your early version should appear online within
  about 4 weeks. It now has a Digital Object
  Identifier number and date online and can now be
  cited in other publications
• Your paper is deposited in PubMed as soon as it
  is published online, ensuring more people see
  your article over a longer amount of time
• The print version of your paper should appear
  within 3-6 months of acceptance

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The print the production process

• Accepted manuscripts are passed to the production
  department
• A production editor will ensure paper meets IMJs
  house style
• Check punctuation, grammar, and consistency of
  terminology
• Check pharmaceutical names and abbreviations
• Check references
• Figures and tables are formatted and the
  manuscript is typeset
• Reasons for delays to start work on a paper
• Artwork in wrong format or
• Exclusive Licence form not complete
• Page proofs are emailed to the corresponding
  author within 8 weeks of acceptance
• Once paper is returned a Document Object
  Identifier (DOI) number is assigned and paper is
  queued for publication

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After acceptance promotion visibility

• Selected articles are press-released by the
  Publications office of the RACP
• Email table of contents (eTOC), with direct links
  to article are sent to thousands of registered
  users
• Selected articles appear on Synergy homepage
  which highlights the best from Blackwells (soon
  Wiley-Blackwells)
• All articles included in key abstracting,
  indexing and linking services including ISI,
  Medline, Embase and Crossref.
• Institutional site licences provide a potential
  audience of several million

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After acceptance www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/i
mj/38/5
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After acceptance Online Early
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Do you want to be on an editorial board?

• Review, review, review
• Tell your supervisors youd like to review
• Review quickly
• Develop a relationship with editors
• Eventually, youll be asked.