محاضرة How to publish in an ISI Journal إعداد الدكتورة حنان عبدالله القرشي
ضمن سلسلة محاضرات البحث العلمي لعام 1437هـ.
وكالة عمادة البحث العلمي للأقسام النسائية، جامعة الملك سعود.
5. TYPES OF PAPERS
5
• Original research
– Interventional/hypotheses testing/experimental
paper
– Descriptive paper
– Method paper
– Epidemiological paper
• Review article
• Case report
• Letter to the editor
• Short communication
• New perspectives
• Editorials/ from the editor
6. WHAT IS CONSIDERED
AS A PAPER/ARTICLE !
6
• A research which contributes to
– Pushing the frontiers of science a bit further
– Strengthening and confirming what is not well
established
– looking at an issue from a new angle
– Proposing a new/previous technique for a
particular purpose
– Widening/narrowing the application of
something
7. WHAT EDITORS AND
REVIEWERS LOOK FOR
IN A PAPER ?
7
• Originality–what’s new about subject,
treatment or results?
• Relevance to and extension of existing
knowledge
• Research methodology –are conclusions valid
and objective?
• Clarity, structure and quality of writing –does it
communicate well?
• Sound, logical progression of argument
• Theoretical and practical implications (the ‘so
what?’ factors!)
• Recency and relevance of references
• Adherence to the editorial scope and
objectives of the journal
8. Preparing your paper-
Structure
8
• Follow a standard pattern:
– Abstract
– Introduction
– Methods
– Results
– Discussion
– Conclusions
• Use formal scientific style.
• Use a short, pithy title that reflects the main
conclusion.
• Abstracts should summarize the article briefly:
– Include motivation, what was done, how, what was found,
and major conclusions;
– Avoid abbreviations and references, unless absolutely
necessary;
– Keep it short <250 words in one paragraph.
• The article should tell a story, set out to lead from one
section to the next.
10. Preparing your paper-
Grammar
10
• Grammar and punctuation are important
because they are fundamental to
transmission of meaning.
– Poor grammar, spelling and punctuation:
– Lead to misinterpretations and ambiguities;
– Give the impression of lack of care in
preparation;
– Suggest perhaps other aspects of the paper
are careless;
– Can upset some referees and make them
more critical than otherwise;
– Can be difficult to overcome, but it is essential
to do so.
11. Preparing your paper-
Grammar
11
• Be sure to:
– Write complete sentences, not too long, not
too short,
– Use commas properly,
– Be consistent in the use of tenses,
– Avoid slang, colloquialisms and jargon,
– Use no contractions –“don’t, couldn’t”,
– Write in reasonably sized paragraphs.
12. Preparing your paper-
Clarity
12
• To convey unambiguous meaning:
• write as simply as possible,
• use the correct words and terminology,
• avoid padding “It is noteworthy that in
this example…”,
• delete meaningless or weak words –
very, quite, shows, possibly,
• ensure that pronouns “it, this, those etc”
are unambiguous,
• be consistent in the use of tenses,
• use “significant” only in its statistical
sense,
• write in reasonably sized paragraphs.
13. Plagiarism, self-
plagiarism and dual
publication
13
Copying (or modifying) ideas, text, tables or
figures from any source without explicitly
acknowledging that source, deliberate or
not, is plagiarism.
14. Plagiarism, self-
plagiarism and dual
publication
14
• Repeating ideas, text, tables or figures
from your own published work without
citing the source is self-plagiarism.
• To avoid plagiarism, always cite your
sources for paraphrased passages and
place exact quotes inside quotation
marks.
• Copied figures should cite the source in
the legend (and may need copyright
permissions).
16. Common pitfalls:
16
Wrong journal
Dual publication
Bad preparation of MS
Weakly presented science
Localism
Lack of discussion
Insignificant conclusions
Poor response to reviews
17. Do you know !
17
1. AHCI Arts and Humanities Citation Index
2. IF Impact Factor
3. ISI Institute for scientific Information
4. JCR Journal Citation Reports
5. SCI Science Citation Index
6. SSCI Social Sciences Citation Index
7. SJR SCImago Journal Rank
18. WHAT EDITORS AND
REVIEWERS LOOK FOR
IN A PAPER ? (CONT.)
18
• Checking the integrity:
• The title, the purpose, the answer and the
recommendations
• The listing: sequence of information
• The words and their relation to the type of
the study:
– Hypothesis paper: (unknown/problematic)
examine, find out, to test,
– Descriptive paper: define, describe, clarify
– Method paper: develop, design, provide,
make, manufacture, offer,
– Epidemiological paper: report the
incidence/prevalence, find out,
19. BEING PUBLISHED
MEANS ...
19
• Your paper is permanent–published
material enters a permanent and
accessible knowledge archive –the ‘body
of knowledge’
• Your paper is improved–through the
interventions of editors, reviewers, sub-
editors and proof-readers
• Your paper is actively promoted–it
becomes available to a far greater
audience
• Your writing is trustworthy–material which
has been published carries a QA stamp.
20. TYPES OF JOURNALS
20
• Research journals *
• Scientific journals *
• Research /scientific journals *
• News journals
• News letters
• Pamphlets
27. CERTAIN IMPORTANT
POINTS BEFORE
SENDING THE PAPER
• “Many papers are rejected simply because they
don’t fulfil journal requirements. They don’t even
go into the review process.”
• Identify a few possible target journals/series but be
realistic
• Follow the Author Guidelines — scope, type of
paper, word length,
references style, etc.
• Find where to send your paper (editor, regional
editor, subject area editor). Check a copy of the
journal/series or the publisher’s web site
• Send an outline or abstract and ask if this looks
suitable and interesting (or how it could be made
so)
• Confirm how an editor would like a submission.
e.g. e-mail; hard copy.
• Read at least one issue of the publication — visit
your library for access 27
29. ISI (Cont.)
• What is commonly referred to by academics
as ‘lSl’,‘SSCl’ or ‘Impact Factors’ is actually
Thomson Reuters now, and more specifically,
its ‘Journal Citation Reports’ (JCR)
• These reports index and rank the journals it
has on its ‘lSl Web of Knowledge’ and is a
collection of bibliographic information of over
9,000 evaluated scholarly journals
• Journals are ranked in the JCR depending on
how many times the articles included in that
journal are cited in other lSl-ranked journals.
The ranking is published every June and
corresponds to the previous year’s data.
• lSl uses a calculation of citation data over a
three year period to produce an Impact
Factor for a given year.
29
30. • Saudi Arabia: have a humble number of
10 journals and good‘ IF rate (3.725).
30
31. For More.. GO TO..
• U ARAB EMIRATES (38 journals):
http://admin:apps.webofknowledge.com
/JCR/JCR?RQ=LIST_SUMMARY_JOURNAL
(4.295)
• United States (2910):
http://admin:apps.webofknowledge.com
/JCR/JCR?RQ=LIST_SUMMARY_JOURNAL
(144.8)
• India
(100): http://admin:apps.webofknowledg
e.com/JCR/JCR?RQ=LIST_SUMMARY_JOU
RNAL (2.203)
31
32. HOW TO EVALUATE
JOURNAL IMPORTANT
POINTS
1. Contrasted Scientific Quality
• Peer reviewed.
• High Impact Factor.
• Scientific editorial committee.
2. Contrasted formal Quality
• Celerity of process.
• Priority of discovering assigned.
• Accomplish publication time release.
3. Appropriated field of knowledge
covered.
32
33. HOW TO EVALUATE
JOURNAL IMPORTANT
POINTS
4. Wide dissemination over scientific
information channels.
5. Types of works accepted.
6. Copyright issues.
– Owned by editorial?
– Owned by author?
7. Fees.
– Author fee?
– Subscription fee?
– Free?
33
34. SUBMITTING A SCIENTIFIC
CONTRIBUTION THE
PROCESS
Follow Academic Publishing Steps (I):
1. Author submits manuscript to an
academic journal editor.
2. Editor determines if the manuscript has
sufficient merit to be reviewed.
3. If merit, manuscript is sent to reviewers, if
not, is sent back to the author with a
rejection letter.
4. Reviewers return the manuscript to the
editor with comments and
recommendations.
5. Editor sends manuscript back to the
author with either a rejection letter or a
request for revisions. 34
35. SUBMITTING A SCIENTIFIC
CONTRIBUTION THE
PROCESS
6. Author revises manuscript and resubmits
to editor.
7. Editor sends revised manuscript back to
external reviewers again.
8. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
9. Author provides editing or proofing of
final copy before
10.Paper is eventually published in journal
35
36. IMPORTANT POINT
If you are asked to choose a peer
reviewer:
• Be fair
• Choose someone in your field; specially
someone in the references
• Not someone in your count
36
37. IMPORTANT POINT (Cont.)
• Use of the Digital Object Identifier
• The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be
used to cite and link to electronic
documents. The DOI consists of a unique
alpha-numeric character string which is
assigned to a document by the publisher
upon the initial electronic publication.
• The assigned DOI never changes
Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a
document, particularly 'Articles in press’
because they have not yet received their
full bibliographic information. The correct
format for citing a DOI is shown as follows
• When you use the DOI to create URL
hyperlinks to documents on the web, they
are guaranteed never to change. 37
38. REVISING THE PAPER
• Acknowledge the editor and set a
revision deadline
• Clarify understanding if in doubt—‘This is
what I understand the comments to
mean...’
• Consult with colleagues or co-authors and
tend to the points as requested
• Meet the revision deadline
• Attach a covering letter which identifies,
point by point, how revision requests have
been met (or If not, why not)
38
39. THE LETTER FOR REVISION
[EXAMPLE]
Dear editor
I would appreciate the revisions done by the reviewer on my manuscript titled.
“the effect of X on Y in Z". l have followed all the comments and revised the
manuscript which is attached. The revisions are as follow.
1. The title is changed into “the effect of X on Y in Z” and the word comparison is
omitted.
2. line one in the introduction is changed into “CCCCCCCC”.
3. In line 10, the word “modified” is changed into "altered" as revised by the reviewer.
4. In Line 11, the ambiguous sentence was deleted and replaced by the following
sentences “CCCCCCCC”.
5. In line 16, Sentence“ CCCCC" was added to clarify the idea.
6. In line 18 of the methodology, the justification for the selection of the participants
was added.
7. In line 22, “CCCCC” was added to justify the method and explicit the reason for the
selection of the method.
8. I am afraid the change suggested by the reviewer in line 35 was not confirmed by
the co-authors, for the
following reasons:
– Aaaaaaa
– Bbbbbb
I am looking forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely yours
Hanan Alkorashy
39
40. WHAT TO DO WHEN THE
PAPER IS REJECTED
40
• Ask why, and listen carefully!
Most editors will give detailed comments
about a rejected paper. Take a deep
breath, and listen to what is being said.
• Try again!
Try to improve the paper, and re-submit
elsewhere. Do your homework and target
your paper as closely as possible.
• Don’t give up!
At least 50% of papers in business and
management don’t get published.
Everybody has been rejected at least
once.
• Keep trying!
41. Dear Editor
Enclosed please find a copy of my
manuscript titled “the effect of X in Y in Z”
for publication in your accredited journal:
‘American y
The justification for the publication in your
accredited journal is that:
1.
2.
3.
This submission is original, not under
consideration for publication elsewhere,
and we are aware of the Submission
process and guidelines and agree to its
publication.
Sincerely yours
Hanan Alkorashy 41
42. CONFLICT OF INTEREST
• All authors are requested to disclose any
actual or potential conflict of interest
including any financial, personal or other
relationships with other people or
organizations within three years of
beginning the submitted work that could
inappropriately influence, or be
perceived to influence, their work.
42
43. CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Example Statement
Dear Editor
All the authors confirm that there is no
actual or potential conflict of interest
including any financial, personal or other
relationships with other people or
organizations that could inappropriately
Influence, or be perceived to in influence,
their work.
Hanan Alkorashy
Correspondent author
43
44. Reference Style
• Text; All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless
there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors’ names and the year of
publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed
al.’ and the year of publication. Citations may be made
d
(or parenthetically). Groups of references should be l' '
alphabetically, then chronologically.
• List: References should be arranged first alphabetically
further sorted chronologically i necessary. More than
one reference from the same author(s) in the same year
identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the
publication.
44
45. Examples:
• Chhokar.J.S..Wal|in,j.A., I984. Improving safety
through applied behavior analysis.journal of Safety
Researc l5, I4I-I5I.
• Cook,T.D., Campbell. D.T., Peracchio L., I990. Quasi
experimentation. In: Dunnette,j.D., Hou h. L.M. (Eds.),
Handbook of industrial and Organizational
Psychology. pp. 49 | - 76. Consulting Psychologists
Press, Palo Alto, CA.
• Hale A.R.. Hovden J., I998. Management and culture:
the third age of safety.A review of approaches to
organizational aspects of safety health and
environment. In:WiIIiamson,A., Feyer,A.-M. (Eds.),
Occupational Injury: Risk, [j Prevention and
Injury.Taylor & Francis.
• Harborview Medical Center Injury Prevention and
Research Center, I997. Systematic Reviews of
Childhood Injury Prevention Interventions.
http://weber.u.washigton.edu/_hipric/index_left.html
(Oct. 22, I997).
• Lipsey, M.W.. I990. Design ensitivity. Sage Publications,
Newbury Park, CA. Harvard style
APACitationMethods-1.pdf 45
46. JOURNAL ABBREVIATIONS
SOURCE
• Journal names should be abbreviated
according to Index Medicus journal
abbreviations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html
• List of serial title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-
online.php
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html
46
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