This document provides information about academic publishing. It begins with the author's credentials and then poses questions about what academic publication is, why researchers want to publish, where to publish, what is considered publishable, and how to get started with the publication process. It then reviews the different stages of peer review and provides a recap of the key points. Guidelines for writing formally and at the appropriate level of specialization for a given journal are discussed. Factors such as impact factor, journal rankings, and whether a topic fits the journal's theme or calls for papers should be considered when deciding where to submit an article. The document stresses following journal instructions, circulating drafts, and proofreading to prepare a submission and navigate the peer review and

1. By
Yusuf Musa Abubakar
Department of Physics
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
1

2.  Academic
 Published
 Material physics research group
 FHEA England
 Public engagement certified
 Managing some grants
 ASRI campaign and advocacy coordinator
 Interested in learning and teaching
B. Sc. Physics A. B. U
M. Sc. Applied instrumentation and Control GCU
Phd Nuclear Instrumentation UoS
2

3. What is academic publication?
Why do you want to publish?
Where do I publish?
What is publishable?
Getting started
Review stages
Recap
3

4. 4
 journal
article/scholarly
journal
 forum for the
presentation,
scrutiny, and
discussion of
research
 peer-reviewed or
refereed

5.  A chapter or essay would make a good article
 It will advance your academic career
 It will help develop career outside academia
 Joining a band wagon
 transmitting ideas to wider audience
 Diversification of academic network
 Writing is a fun
5

6. Register
How formal does my writing need to be?
Level of Specialism
How specific/generic does my writing need to be?
Message
What message do I want to communicate about my research?
Relevance
How can I write about my research in a way that is relevant
to the journal theme?
6

7.  Answers to the first questions are found in
The journal Guidelines for Authors.
 Read Journal Style Guide and find the
answers to the first two questions on Slide 4:
1. How formal does my writing need to be?
2. How specialist/generic does my writing need to
be?
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8.  Articles you read and the ones you cited
 Target audience?
 Online tools like JANE may be of help
http://www.biosemantics.org/jane/
 Information on the Journal’s website
 e-mail the editors for more information
 Calls for articles on your topic
 Impact factors
 Journal finder
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9. Impact factor
𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑
Immediacy index
Average number of times articles in a journal are cited
within the year of publication
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10.  Investigate influence and impact
 Does not measure the quality of an article but
journal
 Not every journal has a JCR/SJR impact factor
 Impact factor of a journal is updated annually
 A single journal can have many subject areas
 Each subject group of magazines is divided into
four quartiles: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4
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11.  Allows users to compare the impact factor of
journals
 SJR: includes a greater number of journals than
the JCR, thus less elective
 SJR: commonly used in science and social
sciences. There are no separate versions for
each subject area.
 JCR: There are two different versions: one for
Science and the other for Social Sciences.
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Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Vs SCIMAGO
Journal and Country Rank (SJR) I

12. JCR is paid for tool while SJR is free of
charge
IFactor of JCR is fixed while for SJR is
variable
Citation period for JCR is 2 years
Citation period of SJR is 3 years and
value of citation is weighted
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13. SJR-(Scimago Journal & Country Rank)
https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?categor
y=3304
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14. Is it true?
Is it new?
Is it important?
Does it bridging the gap
Has it contributed to
knowledge?
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15. Target readership
Subject/discipline
House style of particular journal
Reputation of journal
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16.  Plan your write up in a systematic order
 Do not edit before writing
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17. 17
TITLE
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
METHODOLOGY
RESULTS
DISCUSSION/
CONCLUSION
 Theoretical framework
 Acknowledgements – mostly
for grant or research support
 References – need to be in
the journal format and recent
REFERENCES
CONCISE and ACCURATE, readable, clear language, reusable words in
keywords
CONCISE, ACCURATE, readable, clear
language
E.g. Infantile mortality or Mortality
amongst infants?

18.  Active: importance of agent
more than the action
 Passive: lays more importance
on the action
 Passive or active: subject to
situations
 Combination of active and
passive
18

19.  You may use active or passive because you
want to:
 lay emphasis on the most important part of
sentence
 reduce the word count
 make your paper easier
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20. Active voice is highly encouraged
However you may use passive if:
The agent is unknown, unimportant, or
obvious to the reader
The agent is less important than the
action of the sentence
The agent is less important than the
topic of the sentence
One topic has greater importance
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21.  Why is the abstract so important?
MODEL 1
Focuses on all aspects of the research
Background, Method, Results,
Conclusions
MODEL 2
Focuses on 1 or 2 aspects of the research
Method, Results
21
Article
abstract

22. Employers use ideologically-tinged rhetoric to justify
workplace discrimination. We argue that workers will be less
likely to label biased treatment against them as
discriminatory when they subscribe to those ideologies as
well. We tested this prediction and the consequences of
labelling for work attitudes and performance using an
experiment that assigned parents to a low-status position in
a work group, varying whether the decision invoked biased,
ideological assumptions about parenthood. As expected,
ideology drove mothers' (but not fathers’) labelling. Mothers
were less likely to label biased treatment against them as
discriminatory when they were conservative and when they
subscribed to separate spheres and ideal worker ideologies.
Mothers who labelled their treatment as discriminatory had
more negative work attitudes than those who did not, but
also tended to appeal the decision. Ideology thus shapes
whether people label discrimination when it occurs as well as
their subsequent work attitudes and justice-seeking
behaviours.
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23. Ensure that you clearly signpost your sections
 Signposting is the ‘road map’ for the reader
 Signal the purpose of each section
 Useful at the beginning and end of each
section
e.g. This section describes the …
This section has analysed the …..
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24. 24
Function Word / Phrase
Listing Firstly, secondly, first, second,
finally
Expressing an
expected outcome
as predicted, predictably, as
expected, consistent with
expectations
Giving a reason
/cause
For this reason, due to, because
of , in light of , in view of, on
account of, since, as
Summarising In summary, In sum, to
summarise, to conclude, in brief

25.  Identify the main idea of the paragraph
 State the point the writer wishes to make
 Usually appear at the start of the paragraph
 Express concisely and effectively the overall
topic of the paragraph
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26. Check your article for these points
 Forecasting paragraph at start of paper?
 Clear statement of how each section progresses
your argument?
 Concluding sentence(s) on how section has
progressed argument?
 Regular reference to key terms throughout paper?
 Mention of contribution throughout the paper, not
just at the end?
 Does the aim in the Introduction match the claim
at the end?
 Is paragraph flow logical? Any gaps in the logic?
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27.  Check for concision
Avoid repetition and redundancy
 Check for clarity
Rewrite ambiguous sentences
 Check for Variety (but NOT in keywords)
Use synonyms and different sentence
structures
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28.  Rewrite the following sentence to make it
more concise and to remove any repetition
of ideas.
According to McCusker (2006), he asserts that
young people, including children and
adolescents, who consume caffeine in high
concentrations, suffered from headaches that
were caused by excessive caffeine
consumption.
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29.  Rewrite the following sentence to reduce its
word count from 28 to 18 words or fewer.
In recent years there have been growing
international efforts over the years not only to
understand and treat physical illness, but also
to understand and treat mental illness.
29

30. 30
 Use available software

31. 31
Planning stage
Identify questions requiring answers, analysis needed and target journals
Document format
Page size, font type, font size, etc.
Circulate to co-authors and peers
Thorough proofreading with particular attention to journal checklist
Final Draft
Submission to Journal
First Draft
Share with co-authors
Check with journal instructions to authors
Second Draft
Third Draft
Fourth Draft
Reflect thought on paper, sections and subsections, tables and figures

32.  Plagiarism: similarity index
 Copyright issues
 Seek permission where necessary
 Do you have support for open access
 You may not publish if you want to patent it
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33. 33
AUTHOR
PEER-REVIEW
EDITOR
ACCEPT
ACCEPT WITH
MINOR REVISION
REJECT
Recommendation
PUBLISHED
AUTHOR
PEER-REVIEW
Editor
REQUIRES MAJOR
REVISION
Recommendation REJECT
ACCEPT
EDITOR
REJECT

34. 34

35.  Single-blind review
Double-blind review
Open review
More transparent peer review
Collaborative review
Post-publication review
Triple-blind peer-review
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36. 36

37. 37

38.  Look after yourself
Stay relaxed: Don't take it personal
 Reflect on your goals
 Share your experience
 Read the rejection letter carefully
 Take your time
 Resubmit
38

39.  Poor language construction
 Lack of originality
 Plagiarism
 Copyright issues
39

40. 40
Editor’s comment:
“This paper fell well below my
threshold. I refuse to spend time
trying to understand what the
author is trying to say… My rule of
thumb is that if there are more
than 6 grammatical errors in the
abstract, then I don’t waste my
time carefully reading the rest.”

41.  We have completed our review of the
manuscript. We appreciate the time and
creativity you have put into this work;
however, we have decided not to accept this
submission for publication, as it does not fit
our current editorial needs.
 Thank you for your submission.
Unfortunately, at the moment we do not
have room in our publishing schedule for it.
41

42. 42

43.  Research Impact
 Public engagement
 Be sure about the reason for the
publication
 Be selective on where to publish
 Make sure you are making impact
 Do not procrastinate
 Be patient during review process
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