Presentation to a group of students from Utrecht.

1. ACADEMIC PUBLISHING:
FROM BENCH TO PRESS
DR. FRANCK VAZQUEZ
BASEL, 16 APRIL 2014

2. BASIC RESEARCH ?
RESEARCH IS USED TO ESTABLISH FACTS, SOLVE NEW OR EXISTING PROBLEMS AND
TO SUPPORT OR DEVELOP NEW THEORIES.
RESEARCH PROJECTS CAN SERVE TO EXPAND PAST WORKS IN THE FIELD
AND MIGHT TEST THE VALIDITY OF INSTRUMENTS OR PROCEDURES.
THE PURPOSE OF BASIC RESEARCH ARE DOCUMENTATION, DISCOVERY,
INTERPRETATION, OR THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS
AND SYSTEMS.
AIM OF RESEARCH IS TO INCREASE KNOWLEDGE AND TO USE THIS KNOWLEDGE
TO CREATE NEW APPLICATIONS.
Adapted from wikipedia

3. BASIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS

4. BASIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS
BE UP‐TO‐DATE
MAKE HYPOTHESES
IDEA IS VALID ?

5. BASIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS
PLAN MANPOWER
PLAN BUDGET
WRITE APPLICATION
WAIT !!!
PLAN EXPERIMENTS

6. BASIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS
ANALYSE SAMPLES
RECORD DATA
PREPARE SAMPLES
CONCLUDE /
NEW HYPOTHESES

7. BASIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS
BROAD CONCLUSION
SUMMARIZE DATA

8. BASIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS

9. TIMING OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS
GET FUNDING
DO EXPERIMENTS
WRITE MANUSCRIPT
DESIGN PROJECT
PUBLISH RESULTS

10. PUBLISHING ?
THE PROCESS OF PRODUCTION AND DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION,
LITERATURE, MUSIC, …
THE ACTIVITY OF MAKING INFORMATION/KNOWLEDGE AVAILABLE.
PUBLICATION IS IMPORTANT AS A LEGAL CONCEPT:
GIVES FORMAL NOTICE OF AN INTENTION
ESTABLISHES COPYRIGHT = PROTECTS INFORMATION
SERVES TO ESTABLISH/DETERMINE PRIMACY

11. ACADEMIC PUBLISHING
ONLY EXPERTS CAN READ / FULLY UNDERSTAND YOUR MANUSCRIPT.
THESE EXPERTS ARE YOUR COMPETITORS!!
THE KEY FUNCTIONS OF ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS/EDITORS IS TO MANAGE THE
PROCESS OF PEER REVIEW:
MAIN AIM IS TO ORGANIZE AN IMPARTIAL ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH
MANUSCRIPTS.
ANOTHER AIM IS TO INCREASE KNOWLEDGE AND RELEASE NEW
FINDINGS IN A TIMELY MANNER.

12. JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR
SCIENTISTS RELY ON IMPACT FACTOR OF JOURNALS TO PUBLISH THEIR WORK:
AVERAGE NUMBER OF CITATIONS TO RECENT ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN THE
JOURNAL
NUMBER OF CITATIONS IN YEAR N TO PAPERS IN YEAR N‐1 AND N‐2
IF =
NUMBER OF CITABLE PAPERS PUBLISHED IN YEAR N‐1 AND N‐2
IT IS AN INDICATOR OF THE JOURNAL VISIBILITY AND QUALITY:
THE HIGHEST IMPACT, THE HIGHEST VISIBILITY !

13. THANK YOU