Getting your work published in a journal can be a Herculean task, which demands a lot of hard work and patience. After the initial process of choosing a subject area for research and working on it come the documentation and publishing part. Ideally, this phase should simultaneously begin with the research and end with publication in a journal of repute so as to receive many citations. Here are some tips that you need to bear in mind to get your work easily published in a journal.
Documentation
- Present a novel idea: : A new idea or innovation has a higher chance of getting published in a journal.
- Arrange your research paper logically instead of chronologically: A scientific research paper is expected to have a logical flow instead being chronological, same as that of the research itself.
- First write the research paper and then edit it: When writing a research paper, there is a rush of thoughts in the mind. Therefore, it is recommended that you write down everything and then refine the content before sending it for publication.
- Develop an effective abstract and title: The title of the research paper should clearly and concisely present the topic of the research paper. Similarly, the first part of your abstract should illustrate the subject of your research paper, so that reviewers don’t have to search the research paper for it.
- Don’t cram your PhD in a single manuscript: If required, divide your research into two or three manuscripts, each focusing on different aspects of the research.
- Get your work checked by a colleague: It can become very difficult to understand a research paper if the language is not good. Therefore, it is always better to get your research paper proofread by your colleagues who are native English speakers. This ensures that the research paper goes error-free to the journal.
- Employ the services of a professional editing firm: A research paper that presents there search in simple and lucid language garners more citations. Hence it is highly advisable to get the research paper copy-edited by a professional editing firm. The tables, figures, and references should also be edited and formatted by professionals.
Publication
- Select an appropriate journal: After you complete the writing part, the next hurdle is to find a suitable journal for the manuscript. For that, first go through the aim and scope of the journal to ensure that the research paper is within the scope of the journal. Then check if the type of research paper written by you is accepted by the journal or not. It is preferable to scan through past issues to check whether the topic presented by you has been published by the journal.
- Format the research paper according to journal guidelines: After selecting a journal, you need to format the manuscript according to the journal guidelines. As observed by editor of Surface Engineering Tangali Sudarshan, “Often authors don’t spend the 10 minutes it takes to read the instructions to authors which wastes enormous quantities of time for both the author and the editor and stretches the process when it does not need to.” Often, non-compliance with journal guidelines may lead to rejection of the research paper.
Authors should be very careful while writing and formatting a manuscript so as to avoid rejection. At the end, it’s the novelty value and the language of the research paper that determines its future.