How to Publish in Impact Journals

How to Publish in Impact
Journals?
Grupo de investigación EC3
Evaluación de la Ciencia y de la
Comunicación Científica
Course: La comunicación intercultural euroasiática en las condiciones del proceso
de Bolonia
Date: 26, June, 2013
Place: Casa de la Cultura de Almuñécar
Evaristo Jiménez-Contreras & Nicolás Robinson-García

Summary
1. Brief introduction to scholarly
communication
2. Defining impact and impact journals
3. Selecting journals in our specialty
4. Getting published: the How-to guide

Brief introduction to scholarly
communication

Books are the main communication
channel for scientists
1665
Creation of the two first
scientific journals
1950
Exponencial increment of scientific
journals
2013

Scientific paper
[Peer Review, Final and
Public, Specialized]
Books and
monographs
Reference books
Repositories
preprints
Congress
[Peer
Review, interpersonal, pu
blic]
Data Sharing
Data Banks
Web 2.0:
blogs, facebook, twitter.
[without Peer
blic]
University cafeteria, e-
mail, telephone
[interpersonal, private]
How do researchers communicate?

Scientific paper
Books and
monographs
Reference books
Repositories
preprints
Congress
[Peer
blic]
Data Sharing
Data Banks
Web 2.0:
blogs, facebook, twitter.
[without Peer
blic]
University cafeteria, e-
mail, telephone
[interpersonal, private]
From an uncontrolled environment…
… to transparent and controlled channels

Scientific paper
Why scientific papers?
Scientific journal
[Impact Factor, Journal
Rankings, Visibility]
Journal-level Metrics
Article-level Metrics

Raise your hand those who
wouldn’t want to publish here!

Scientific paper
Scientific journal
PEER REVIEW ENSURES CREDIBILITY
“Peer review is the principal mechanism for quality
control in most scientific disciplines. By assessing the
quality of research, peer review determines what [..]
research results get published.”
Bornmann, 2011

Scientific paper
Scientific journal
“The bibliographies contained in most scientific papers
represent a brief history of the subjects they treat and
lead to earlier related events.”
CITATIONS TRACK “IMPORTANT” PAPERS
http://scimaps.org/maps/map/histcite_visualizati_52/detail/
Garfield, Sher &
Torpie, 1964

85%
10%
5%
30%
60%
10%
Experimental Sciences
50%40%
10%
Journals Books Others
Social Sciences Humanities
Is it the same everywhere?

Defining impact and impact
journals

What do we mean by Scientific Impact?
Campanario, González & Rodríguez, 2006

What do we mean by Scientific Impact?
• Conversation
• Citations
• Quality
Article
• Visibility
• Competition
• Prestige
Journal
• Funding
• Tenure
• Success
Recognition

How do we define an Impact Journal?
Science Citation Index
Social Science Citation Index
Arts & Humanities Citation Index

How do we define an Impact Journal?

How do we define Impact? The Impact
Factor
IMPACT FACTOR 2006 = CITATIONS 2004-2005 / PUBS 2004-2005

How do we define Impact? The Impact
Factor
Lozano, Larivière & Gingras, 2012 arXiv:1205.4328v1

Journal rankings and Impact Factors are published
annually in the Journal Citation Reports by Thomson
Reuters. They are accessible via subscription

Due to low citation rates, journals in Humanities do not
have an Impact Factor. In this field we consider as impact
journals all indexed in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index

JCRAllergyin2009.RankingIF–21journals
1º Q
2º Q
3º Q
4º Q

What does the Impact Factor measure?
Article’s Impact
≠
Journal’s Impact

Seglen, 1999

• All researchers aim at and need to publish most of their research output in
“Impact Journals”
• These are international journals, we compete with researchers from all over
the world
• They receive lots of manuscripts and therefore, they reject many
• The peer review process is harder and made by the best experts in the area
As they receive more manuscripts they have more where to choose and
therefore, more possibilities of publishing better papers in the area. This are the
ones which get more cited and are well received by the community, obtaining a
better IF. Delgado López-Cózar defines the IF as an indicator of
competitiveness

Most of the research policy guidelines and
research evaluation exercises consider them
as key factor
You will develop a
successful research career
Why publish in a Impact Journals?
You will gain a wider audience of readers and
hence, your contribution will get more
visibility

Evaluation agencies

You will improve your university’s status

You will increase your budget

Become active in the international community
Zuccala, 2005

Excuses for not publishing in impact
journals
My research line and my articles are of national interest
International reviewers are uncapable of understanding the wide scope
of my research papers
I do not publish in English, we must defend our language!!
International journals usually take a long time to publish my papers
In my research area books and book chapters are more important
There are no international journals covering my research interests

• CHANGE THE PERSPECTIVE
Adapt to international standards
• CHANGE THE STRATEGY
Less papers but better
• CHANGE THE TOPICS
Search for relevant research questions
in your area
I may have to change some things

Selecting journals in our
specialty

Where to publish?
Identify the audience to which you are targeting
Professional Academic

Always publish in peer-reviewed journals
That is, your papers will be anonimously
evaluated by two or more experts
Where to publish?

Where are those journals?
INREC-H
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES

It belongs to Elsevier, the biggest scientific
publisher in the world
It includes around 16500 journals from all
research fields.
They have their own ‘impact indicator’ called
SJR.

Developed by the European Science Foundation
It includes 6459 journals in Humanities
published in any European language.
Journals are classified according to their impact
(International1, International2 and National) and
15 thematic categories.

Along with INRECJ and INRECS, this is an Index
for Spanish journals which fills the gap left by
other databases.
It ranks journals according to the average
number of citations per paper.
It classifies journals in 15 categories depending
on the specialty.

Getting published: The How-to
guide

• It is better to articulate a good research question and look out for
the necessary tools in order to answer it than to pose a research
question according to the tools you already have.
• You must try to be original. A curious thing I’ve found out from
papers authored by Spanish-speaking people is that, the more
evidences they find in the literature supporting their results, the
more assertive they feel over the importance of the contribution
they are making.
• We must address the difficult issues. Unfortunately, that is the
interesting one and the one which will be getting published in
Nature or any other of our journals. That is the main difference
between famous researchers and the rest of us.
First comes first…

• Focus on innovative aspects
• Be clear in your mind about the structure of the
paper
• Make it comprehensible and interesting
• Select carefully which is the best place to get it
published
• Be honest and upstanding
• Focus on quality rather than quantity
• Be patient when writing the article
Things you must take in mind

Look out for partners when publishing
Effects of no collaboration, national
collaboration and international collaboration
Katz & Hicks, 1997

Be honest with authorship
BEWARE: The authors’ position reflect their
contribution to the paper
AUTHOR 1; AUTHOR 2; AUTHOR 3
Authorship: Criteria and Policy
Authorship implies accountability. Listed authors must have contributed
directly to the intellectual content of the paper... Authors should meet all of
the following criteria:
• Conceived and planned the work that led to the article or played an
important role in interpreting the results, or both.
• Wrote the paper and/or made substantive suggestions for revision.
• Approved the final version

Be honest with authorship
BEWARE: The authors’ position reflect their
contribution to the paper

Make a good literature review
Be honest when citing, do not omit competitors
Cite the most recent literature
Cite international papers, use scientific databases
Make sure to cite all papers on the topic published in
the journal to which you are submitting your
manuscript

Make a good literature review
DON’T BE CHEEKY!

When writing the manuscript
1. Many papers are rejected or loose their value because they
are not well written, presented or structured.
2. If we do not pay attention to the details, probably the main
message and good ideas expressed in our paper will be
missed out and go unnoticed.
3. Just taking care of a series of basic details our paper may
improve substantially.
4. Work out which are the main conclusions of your work and
write and present the paper always keeping them on mind.
5. Give some thought to the introduction, in it we must
present what has been previously done and what will we
contribute with.

“[…]However, the paper does is utmost best to present itself
as a contribution to just Spanish national matters. Then, non-
Spanish readers may not be very interested, and that includes
most of Research Evaluation readers. Thus, unfortunately, the
paper as it stands now is only of marginal interest to RE and is
much more suitable for a Spanish national journal. Now, the
paper could certainly be improved: focus on what is
interesting for an international public, present the study as
dealing with a general issue[…]”.
Because if you don’t, this will be the answer you
will receive
Approach the topic from an international
perspective

“[…]Considering target audience of the article, present the
methodology in terms of spectral decomposition makes no
sense. This was introduced by Gabriel in the journal
Biometrika that is aimed to mathematicians. If one observes
the article of Odoroff and Gabriel (1990), which was aimed at
doctors, presentation omitted any algebraic development.
Should be limited to providing clear rules of interpretation and
limit the method to his original quote (properly cited, of
course)[…]”.
Because if you don’t, this will be the answer you
will receive
Address your research topic according to the
audience to which you address

Respect authors’ guidelines
Pay a special attention to the
journals’ instructions for authors
• Abstract, keywords
• Structure, tables and figures
• Length
• Referencing
IF WE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS WE WILL
AVOID HAVING THE EDITOR AND REVIEWERS CALLING OUR
ATTENTION. THESE ERRORS MAY BE CRUCIAL ON THE FATE OF
OUR PAPER
Check some papers previously
published by the journal

Look out for your English
http://www.ease.org.uk/guidelines/index.shtml
• Journals hate badly written manuscripts
• Check the terminology you use
• If you are hiring a translator
• Choose someone specialized in your field of
endeavour
• If you have written the text
• Have a native English-speaker to check it
• Beware the type of English you use
• American or British

Aspects that must be taken into account
Some aspects journals take into account when
reviewing manuscripts
Revista Española de Documentación Científica

Look out for tables and figures
Sometimes tables and figures are the most important part of our work
or even the only one our readers will pay attention to.
Include only the neccessary ones, only those that reinforce our results.
Do not transform your paper into a list of tables, try to comprise
results in just a few tables always preserving their quality. More tables
and figures do not neccessarily mean more results!
Avoid redundancy. Avoid overlapping tables and figures.
Use explicative titles avoiding acronyms if possible. Make sure the
tables and figures can be interpreted without reading the text.
Make attractive figures, take your time, they summarize part of the
message you are sending

FIGURES AND TABLES
ARE PRETTY…

… AND INFORMATIVE

Select the right journal
Audience
• Academic
• Professional
Scope
• Readership
• Research
community
Visibility
• Impact
journals
• Publishers
Publish
• Continue the
conversation

BEWARE: Read the journal’s scope carefully

You can even point out the target audience in the paper

“Dear Mr Daniel Torres-Salinas,
Thank you for your submission for Journal of Informetrics
entitled "State of the Library and Information Science
blogosphere after social networks boom: a metric approach".
The editorial office has, however, decided that this paper is
outside the scope of this journal.
Yours sincerely”
If you get it wrong, this will be the answer you will receive

Double check which type of papers they publish

Phil.Science-in2009.Ranking–35journals
1º Q
2º Q
3º Q
Alwayscontemplateseveraljournalsinwhich
yourpapercouldbepublished

Writing a research paper
Writing a research paperBefore submitting a manuscript
You may as well send it to some colleagues to check
some aspects. Don’t forget to thank them!

• Include a “Cover Letter” underlining the paper’s
originality and novelty, also pointing out its potential
interest to the journal’s readers
• List the main results of your research and emphasize its
importance How are you contributing to the field?
• Sometimes it may be interesting to suggest some
possible reviewers, especially if the paper is of great
novelty
Writing a research paperSending the manuscript

Authors should include a cover letter detailing
the key findings of their manuscript. The cover
letter should highlight the novel aspects of
their data and briefly describe how the
authors feel their results will generate
progress in their field. ….Furthermore, if the
authors feel their work merits publication as a
breakthrough paper, they should indicate this
in the cover letter...
Not all journals ask for a “cover letter” but it is
advisable to always send it
Example extracted from the “authors guidelines” of:
Sending the manuscript

Writing a research paperThe peer review process

ACCEPTED √
MINOR CHANGES √
MAJOR REVISIONS ¿?
REJECTED X
The peer review process

1) Answer to all the commentaries, even if you don’t agree or are
minor issues.
2) Be well-mannered when answering and use solid scientific
arguments when you disagree with the reviewer.
3) If necessary, get ready, you may have to retrieve more
data, undertake more observations or perform new experiments.
4) If the changes suggested do not require an excessive effort and do
not alter the paper excessively, make them, don’t waste your time
arguing with the reviewer.
This may be one of the hardest moments, we must study the
reviewers comments and respond to them in a letter.

“Reviewer: I do not think that computer science is the
appropriate field for the method to be tested. In computer
science there is heavy reliance on proceedings… It would be
good to test the method on additional fields as well”
Coments implying retrieving new data, processing it and
redoing the paper
“You say that CS is well represented in JCR. I strongly disagree with this”
Comments which do not imply changing the paper but
responding to the reviewer
“TOPCIT - you should provide a more detailed definition”
Comments which involve minor changes
“Page 8, first line "proving" I suggest to replace this by "indicating"
Comments which imply modifying the text without further
discussion
What can we have in a review?

TITLE
Example of a structured response to a review

Be prepared for the unexpected

Always be polite but firm…
… and present proofs that justify your answer

• NEVER take it as something personal
• Be honest and try to understand why the paper was rejected
• Make the most of reviewers’ comments to improve your work
• Rewrite a new paper but don’t send it to another journal
without correcting the facts why it was rejected on the first place
Accept rejected papers with good nature

“Undeniably, the most common way to communicate a given
finding, theory or discovery is through its publication in articles
submitted to learned journals. It may happen that the editors
and referees who read articles reporting a novel discovery are
not able to assess the value of innovative work”
Campanario, JM. Rejecting and resisting Nobel class discoveries... Scientometrics, 2009
Maybe your paper was not that bad after all!

• Good and well-focused research lines
• Good knowledge of research methodologies in our
specialty
• Ambition for publishing internationally
• Patience with the research, writing and reviewing
• Neatness, clarity and conciseness when presenting
results
• Persistence against failure
Final tips

How to Publish in Journals
with Impact?
Questions?
Evaristo Jiménez-Contreras
evaristo@ugr.es
http://www.ugr.es/~evaristo
This is an adapted version of:
- Torres-Salinas, D. Cómo publicar en revistas de impacto. Unidad de
Bibliometría, Universidad de Granada.
Nicolás Robinson-García
elrobin@ugr.es
http://www.ugr.es/~elrobin

How to Publish in Impact Journals

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