Can we teach the process of "Dealing with the publication process". An overview over the stae of the art 2015.

1. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
20.05.15 Page 1
Dealing with the publication
process – with a focus on life
sciences
Dr. Melanie Paschke, paschkme@ethz.ch
Managing Director Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
Trainer in advanced transferable skills
06.05.2014, University of Zurich

2. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
20.05.15 Title of the presentation, Author Page 2
Outline
– Can we offer guidance in dealing with the publication process?
– The publication process and its timeline
– Developing a publication strategy
– How to submit the manuscript
– Dealing with reviewer’s comments
– Post-Publication Marketing

3. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
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Can we offer guidance in dealing with the
publication process?

4. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
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Publishing has become complicated and puts high
demands especially on young scientists
• Environment of over-competition: not in favor of
quality but of quantity
• Career expectation towards young scientists are
enormous
• Number of journals and scholarly publications has
increased – but which of these journals guarantee
impact, credibility, visibility?
• Review processes are in transformation: open
review, post-publication review

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The publishing market
• 28,100 active scholarly peer-
reviewed journals in mid
2012,
• 1.8–1.9 million articles a
year.
• The number of articles
published each year: +3% -
3.5% per year
(Source: Ware & Mabe 2012)
Source: SCIMAGO

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Especially young scientists need guidance to
• Develop a publication strategy
• Deal efficiently with the publication process
• Understand how to get a high-quality publication
• Deal with the demand of funders, publishers,
institutions regarding publication policies: including
for example data availability, open access,
changing authorship practices, dealing with
plagiarism, research ethics

7. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
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Publish or Perish

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However …
• How much?
• In which quality?
• What impact?
• Will be enough for a scientific career in the up-
coming decade?

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Recent policies that will have an impact on the
current publication practices
• DORA Declaration (2012): Declaration on Research
Assessment. Assessment of research on quality
and not only on bibliometric measurement
• European Union (2013): Guideline on Data
Management: Data Management Plans (DMPs) detailing what
data the project will generate, whether and how it will be exploited or
made accessible for verification and re-use, and how it will be curated
and preserved.
• Open Access Declarations

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The Publication Process and its Timeline

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Peer review is in the center of the publication
process:
• to maintain standards of quality,
• improve performance, and
• provide credibility of research

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The timeline of the peer reviewing process
Submission Acceptance Publication
Initial
Quality
Control
Revise
Resubmit
Fast-track
Science
PLOS One
15 days ! !
Peer Review
!
! !
! !
Subject
to editing
! ! !
! ! ! !
Senior
Editor
!
!
!
100 days
On average:
213 days
Standard Journal
On average:
9 months
! ! ! ! ! !!
Sources: Journal webpages and
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2011/10/07/is-plos-one-slowing-down/

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The classical editor-based review process –
decisions after submission and before peer review
• Manuscript submitted (-> electronically)
• Editor in Chief (EIC) informed and revising the
manuscript for consistency with journal scope,
novelty, quality, impact
• Decision that the EIC has the power to make:
– Reject without review
– If necessary ask assistance editor for further
review
– Select and contact external peer reviewers

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Decisions of EIC after the peer review
• Review expert comments (together with Associated
editor if necessary):
• Accept
• Accept with minor changes
• Accept with major changes (reviewed again)
• Reject and encourage to provide more
experimental data (resubmission)
• Reject

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Criticism
• The large role that EIC have in deciding what fits the scope of
their journals
• A tendency in large journals for a decreasing rate of
manuscripts sent to peer review
• The focus on novelty

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The open-access review – decisions of AE after
peer review – Example PLOS
• Manuscript submitted (-> electronically)
• Manuscripts assigned to academic editors (AE) on base of
content and expertise
• They can review the paper or find reviewers
• On average 2.9 reviewers / manuscript
• Accept in principle
• Minor revision
• Major revision
• Reject
Source: PLOS

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What is PLOS One looking for?
• PLOS ONE will rigorously peer-review your submissions and
publish all papers that are judged to be technically sound.
• Judgments about the importance are made after publication
by the readership.
• Evaluation criteria:
• Technical soundness of the work
• Rigor of the analysis
• Adherence to our data availability policy
• Clear use of English language
Source: PLOS

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Criticism
• Force much more work on peer reviewers because
there is no filter or experience to sort out research
work of very low quality at the beginning
• This might slow down the publication process
• A danger to produce redundant research
Source: PLOS

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Open review: a new way?
• Advocates indicate that an open review will improve
time and resources spent in a review as well as
quality (and preliminary studies confirming this)
• Critics emphasize that open review will prevent
many reviewers from giving open criticism

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Developing a Publication Strategy

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Developing an publication strategy
• Plan your writing time
• Select journals for publishing early in the
publication process
• Clarify collaboration and authorship early

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Submission: Select a journal – criteria for priority
setting
• Aim as high as you reasonable can
• Does the journal fit your work? Similar work published?
Similar techniques used?
• How much will it cost?
• What is the average time needed from submission to
publication?
• What is the rejection rate?
• Is the journal open access?
• Have you had good experiences with the journal in the past?
Adapted after Jeremy Fox, January 2014: https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/
2013/01/24/advice-how-to-decide-where-to-submit-your-paper/

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Submission: Select a journal – criteria for priority
setting
Journal Acceptance
Rate
Time for
Publication
Impact Factor
(2013)
Open Access
Science 7% 100 days 31.477 no
Plos One 69% 213 days 3.54 yes
Ecology not available 29 days to first
decision; 35
days from
acceptance to
publication;
variable time in
between
5.431 Optional
available
Source: journals’ guidelines 2015

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IMPACT FACTOR
• Definition Impact Factor (IF)
• Average number of citations of a journal - calculated on a
three-year period
• Proxy of the importance of a journal to its field
• A = number of times articles published in 2012 – 2013 were
cited in other journals in 2014
• B = number of articles published 20012 – 2013
• IF = A/B

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Criticism
• Compare a journal in the category of its discipline (e.g.
Ecology with 5.43 is 14th of 136 Ecology journals)
• Different citation practises: In ecology three-year is to low for
determining IF (5-year impact factor preferred)
• IF should not be misused to predict the importance of an
individual publication.
• A high impact factor can be interpreted as value for the
quality standards of the journal
• It can be manipulated by journals policies

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Criticism
• Compare a journal in the category of its discipline (e.g.
Ecology with 5.43 is 14th of 136 Ecology journals)
• Different citation practices: In ecology three-year is to low for
determining IF (5-year impact factor preferred)
• IF should not be misused to predict the importance of an
individual publication.
• A high impact factor can be interpreted as value for the
quality standards of the journal
• It can be manipulated by journals policies

27. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
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A difference in the publication strategy?
Why are so few women in higher research positions?
• EMBO conducted a study on 3 stages: end of PhD, Post Doc, group
leader
• Evaluators select more male than female applications even if
documents are without any hint about the gender of applicants
• Publication record of woman includes less publications at all stages
• At post-doc stage the IF and citation rate is significantly lower for
women in first-/last-authored publications, later on this is covered
• Women more often follow partner, devote more time to family care or
get involved in teaching duties, therefore, might spent less time on
publications especially in the postdoc years
Ledin, Bornmann, Gannon and Wallon (2007)

28. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
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How to Submit your Manuscript

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How to submit your manuscript
• Read the instructions for submission and follow them exactly
• Data availability clarified?
• Authorship clarified?
• Following all necessary ethical standards?
• No plagiarism
• Recognition of the funders (and their policies)?

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Data Availability Regulations at PLOS (shortened)
• PLOS journals require authors to make all data underlying the
findings described in their manuscript fully available
• When submitting a manuscript online, authors must provide a
Data Availability Statement Acceptable data-sharing methods:
• Data deposition in public repository (strongly
recommended) Data in Supporting Information files
• Data made available to all interested researchers upon
request
• Data available from third party
Source: PLOS

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Authorship Regulations at PLOS (shortened)
• Process. All authors will be contacted by email at submission
• Authorship criteria. All PLOS journals base their criteria for
authorship on those outlined in the International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The contributions of all
authors must be described.
• Changes in authorship. PLOS journals follow the COPE
guidelines covering changes in authorship. If any changes to
the list of authors of a manuscript are necessary after the
initial submission of a manuscript to a PLOS journal but
before its publication, the corresponding author must first
contact the journal staff and provide a clear reason for the
change(s). Source: PLOS

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Plagiarism is an offence
Plagiarism detection tools are used in most submission
processes – 80% of high-impact journals have access to
iThenticate

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How to convince editors (Examples what our
student learn)
• Editor’s choice below 10 minutes
• An editor will read in the following order:
• A title that will be remembered
• An convincing abstract
• Material & Methods must be detailed enough that results
can be reproduced
• Clear and precise English writing (style and grammar)
• Brevity

34. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
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How to Deal with Reviewer’s Comments

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Revision (examples of what our students learn)
• Letter to the Editor
• Acceptance or refusal of reviewer’s advice

36. Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
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Post-Publication Management

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Post-publication marketing strategy
• An active marketing of all publications of a researcher
increases visibility and citation rate
• Active marketing can include:
• Increased access to publications via Preprints in institutional
open access repositories will increase visibility
• Open access repositories are very visible in GoogleScholar
• Use the power of business networks: ResearchGate, Mendeley
• Use the media offices of your institution to highlight your high-
impact publications
• Create a presence in twitter or the blogosphere to highlight your
work (much work!)

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Measurement of Impact – CITATION RATE and
LIFE TIME CITATIONS AS THE MOST PURE
MEASUREMENTS
• Through Metrics:
• 5-year impact factor
• Eigenfactor
• H-index
• Citation Rate / Life Time Citations
Total Articles in Publication List: 80
Articles With Citation Data: 74
Sum of the Times Cited: 12235
Average Citations per Article: 165.34
h-index: 42
Last Updated: 05/05/2015 11:45 GMT
NN
Source: Web of Science

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Measurement of Impact
Our prediction:
• Impact measurement of publication will change in the near
future, e.g. less amount and more quality
• E.g. list you last most-influential publication is implemented
in grant application processes.
• Independence in the publications is an important criteria
See for example
• DORA Declaration (2012): Declaration on Research Assessment
is now signed by most large funding organisations and
publishers, however, implementation will need some time

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Other Measurement of Impact that are equally
important
• In/on society:
• e.g. patents built on a certain publication
• Implementation of scientific results at the science-policy
interface, e.g. invitation to join policy networks, evidence-
based advise to policies
• Influential Policy Papers

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Courses
Dealing with the Publication Process
• Dr. Philipp Mayer, Prof. Dr. Christian Fuhrer, Dr. Melanie
Paschke
• 12 & 15 June 2015
• Organised by Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center for Life
Science Zurich Graduate School
• http://www.lifescience-graduateschool.ch/index.php?
id=96
THANK YOUR FOR YOUR ATTENTION!