More from the Panel on Getting Published

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

As you may recall, last week’s post featured advice from a panel of journal editors and editorial board members who spoke in my intensive course. The panelists made so many good points that I’m sharing more of them now. Here they are:

• Writing that is easy to read makes a paper more publishable. If a paper (especially the abstract) is easy to read,
  • editors can more easily decide which peer reviewers would be suitable, and
  • peer reviewers are more likely to agree to review it—and more likely to review it promptly and accurately
• Nearly everyone who submits papers to journals sometimes has papers rejected. Rejection is painful, but coping with it gets easier over time. Keep trying to get papers published.
• Papers for journals should be focused enough. Commonly, addressing only 1 or 2 research questions is best. However, papers also need enough depth. Authors should not divide what should be 1 well-developed paper into 3 little papers.
• At some journals, if authors believe that the peer reviewers have not evaluated their paper competently, they can withdraw their paper and resubmit it, requesting other reviewers.
• In choosing journals for paper submission, authors should consider multiple aspects, not only impact factor. Find out which journals colleagues consider good. Some important, respected journals don’t have high impact factors.

Many thanks again to the panelists for sharing their advice. (Don’t worry; next week I’ll discuss a different topic. Feel free to propose one.)

Until the next post—

Barbara