ISET Rades IT Department

Scientific Writing and Communication

Part 3: Publishing Process
Habib SMEI
habibsmei@gmail.com
ISET Radés

A.U : 2020/2021

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Objective

• Identify the main stages of publishing scientific paper process.

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Outline

• Publishing the Paper :

 Where and how to submit the manuscript

 The review process (by reviewers)

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Publishing the Paper

Choice of the Journal

 It is best to choose the journal already at the beginning of the writing process. In this way, you can
follow the writing instructions of the right journal.

 Your research group probably has a list of recommended journals.

 You should also check in which journals the papers on your list of references were published.

 Impact factor, time of review, accessibility, etc. may also affect your choice  Discuss with your
supervisor.

Submission

Nowadays, each journal has a submission system available in the web.

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Remember - What is a strong manuscript?

Has a novel, clear, useful, and exciting message
Presented and constructed in a logical manner
Reviewers and editors can grasp the scientific significance easily

Editors and reviewers are all busy scientists –

make things easy to save their time

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Select the best journal for submission

Look at your references – these will help you narrow your choices.

Review recent publications in each candidate journal. Find out the hot topics, the

accepted types of articles, etc.

Ask yourself the following questions:

 Is the journal peer-reviewed?
 Who is this journal’s audience?
 What is the journal’s Impact Factor?

DO NOT gamble by submitting your manuscript to more than one journal at a

time.
International ethics standards prohibit multiple/simultaneous submissions, and editors DO find out! (Trust

us, they DO!)

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Practical Advice
Find out what’s Hot
Elsevier (Scopus) : http://info.scopus.com/topcited/
ScienceDirect : http://personal.strath.ac.uk/x.mao/Top25Papers/Automatica07/Automatica07.html
Google Scholar : https://scholar.google.com
Find the trends of the subject area
Search tips (including alerts)
Journals, authors, publications per year (Scopus)
IF
Evaluate which journal is right for your article
Impact Factor / Subject Specific Impact Factor (http://tinyurl.com/scopusimpact)
SCImago Journal & Country Ranking (http://scimagojr.com/)

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What is the Impact Factor (IF)?

Impact Factor
[the average annual number of citations per article published calculated over a 2 year
period]
e.g. 600 citations =2
150 + 150 articles

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Influences on Impact Factors: Subject Area

Fundamental Life Sciences

Neuroscience

Clinical Medicine

Pharmacology & Toxicology

Physics

Chemistry & Chemical Engineering

Earth Sciences

Environmental Sciences

Biological Sciences

Materials Science & Engineering

Social Sciences

Mathematics & Computer Sciences

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5

Mean Impact Factor

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Publishing the paper

Review
After receiving your manuscript, the editor first checks whether the paper belongs to the field of the
journal.

The editor chooses 2-4 reviewers and sends the manuscript to them asking for a reviewer’s report,
typically, within two months.

The reviewers are usually other researchers who have published papers on slightly similar topics.

If things go as planned, the author gets the editors decision together with the reviewers’ comments
within three months from submitting the paper. However, this may be a too optimistic time schedule.

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Publishing the paper

Revision
A typical editor’s decision is: “We are willing to consider publishing the manuscript listed below, which
you submitted to IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, pending your successful completion of the revisions
which our reviewers feel the work requires”.

This is actually quite a positive message as most of the papers receiving this decision will be accepted
after the first round of revisions.

After receiving the editor’s decision above, you should submit the revised paper together with a revision
report within one month. In the report, you clearly indicate how you responded to each of the reviewers’
comments.

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Publishing the paper

The paper will typically be printed within six months from

the date of acceptance. The whole process from the
submission to publication takes 6 – 18 months.

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The end - Thanks

Don’t get tied up in knots…
Ask your instructor if you’re unsure about anything..

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References

Day R.A., Gastel, B. 2006. How to write and publish a scientific paper. Sixth edition. Cambridge
University Press. 302 p. ISBN-10 0-521-67167-1.

Kauranen, I., Mustakallio, M., Palmgren, V. 2007. Tutkimusraportin kirjoittamisen opas

opinnäytetyön tekijöille. Otaniemi, Teknillinen korkeakoulu. Toinen painos. ISBN 951-22-8359-X.

Kauranen, I., Ropponen, P., Aaltonen M. 1993. Tutkimusraportin kirjoittamisen opas. Otaniemi,
Teknillinen korkeakoulu. Toinen painos. ISBN 951-22-1831-3.

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