Juniel Publish or perish.pdf

Preparing Research Article for SCOPUS-
Indexed Publications
JUNIEL G. LUCIDOS
Director for Extension,Romblon State University

Why do we want to publish?
Finding the right journals/conferences
Why SCOPUS?
Facts and Tips in preparing your manuscript

 Preparing and submitting of a manuscript to a journal for
publication is both exciting and challenging experience for
researchers.
 It is more exciting and rewarding if you receive an acceptance
letter from the journal Editor.
 News of rejection is usually very depressing but everyone’s
papers rejected once or even more (Be Ready for Rejection!).

Publishable
Researches start
with Relevant and
Quality Research
Proposals

REJECTION
 There is insufficient new, interesting and
significant information in the paper
 Weak references/related literatures
 Objectives are not clear
 Local issues with insufficient interest for an
international audience
 The manuscript is poorly structured

If your research is not
published in a
journal it does not
exist.
Prof Gustaf Olsson
Editor‐in‐Chief
Water Science & Technology

Contribution to the body of knowledge?
Address specific research problem/gaps?
Professional growth and
development/Invited as Reviewer?
International recognition and linkages?
Enhanced teaching quality?
Attainment of university targets and
rankings?
Rewards and incentives?
Promotions (NBC 461)?

SCOPUS
 SCOPUS is the largest abstract and citation database of peer
reviewed literatures, scientific journals, books, and conferences.
 Its vast database contains abstracts and references from more than
21,000 titles, obtained from over 5,000 publishers (Elsevier)
worldwide (2013).
 Its broad interdisciplinary coverage in the fields of science,
technology, medicine, social sciences and the arts and humanities
 Search for relevant topics or articles during the literature review
phase

SCOPUS
 Decide where, and with whom, to publish- analyze the top
journals and authors in your discipline.
 Discover who is citing you, see their h-index and output
information
 Explore how many citations and article or author has received,
and identify potential collaborators.
 Manage your research output and monitor your reputation
(received citation alerts, use the SCOPUS Author Profile Page
to view and analyze your output including your h-index)

PUBLISHABLE.
Ask your self??
 Have I done something new and interesting?
 Is there anything challenging in my work?
 Is my work related directly to a current hot topic?
 Have I provided solutions to some difficult problems?
YES
Start preparing your
manuscript
NO
Submit to local journals
or with lower impact
factor

PUBLISHABLE.
Reviewers are using questionnaires in which they must respond to questions
such as:
 Does the paper contain sufficient new material?
 Is the topic within the scope of the journal?
 Is it presented concisely and well organized?
 Are the methods and experiments presented in the way that they can be replicated
again?
 Are the results presented adequately?
 Is the discussion relevant, concise and well documented?
 Are the conclusions supported by the data presented?
 Is the language acceptable?
 Are figures and tables adequate and well designed? Are they to many?
 Are all references cited in the text included in the reference list?

FULL ARTICLES/ORIGINAL
ARTICLES
LETTERS/RAPID
COMMUNICATIONS/SHORT
COMMUNICATIONS
REVIEW PAPERS OR
PERSPECTIVES
 Most important paper
 Original research
 Completed research
 Quick and early
communication of
significant and
original advances
 Much shorter than full
articles
 Summarize recent
developments on a
specific hot topic
(highlighting
important points that
have previously been
reported& introduce
no new information)
 Normally they are
submitted on
invitation by the editor

 Is it sufficient for a full article, or are your results so thrilling that they
should be shown as soon as possible?
 Ask your supervisor or a colleague for advice on the manuscript type
to be submitted (Remember also that sometimes outsiders- i.e.,
colleagues not involved in your research- can see things more clearly
than you.
 Whatever type of article you write, plan to submit only one
manuscript, not a series of manuscripts. (Normally editors hate this
practice, since they have limited space in the journals and series of
manuscripts consume too many pages for a single topic or an
author/group of authors)
Self-evaluate your work:

 Do not gamble by scattering your manuscript to many journals at the
same time. Only submit once and wait for the response of the editor
and the reviewers.
 The most common way of selecting the right journal is to look at the
articles you have consulted to prepare your manuscript. Probably
most of them are concentrated in one or two journals.
 Read recent publications in each candidate journal and find out the
hot topics and the types of articles accepted.
 Consider the high rejection rates of the journal (e.g. Nature, Science,
The Lancet, and Cell). If your research is not very challenging, focus
in more humble

Researchers can be lured by the promise of being
published in distinguished journals or being offered to
speak in international conference. Sadly, sometimes they
end up being duped and paying high rates.
“Publish or Perish” has been the phrase many have
adhered to. But before submitting your intellectual works,
take a step back and consider the following tips to avoid
being a VICTIM.

A journal is Indexed when its bibliographic and citation
information is included by the citation data supplier.
For “Research University” the citation data supplier is
Scopus & Web of Science
What is an Indexed-Journal???

A journal’s “impact factor” is an annual measure of
the extent to which articles in that journal are cited.
It’s a rating that’s calculated by the Institute for
Scientific Information and published in an annual
volume of the Science Citation Index or on their
website.
It can be used - with caution - as a rough measure of
the reputation of a journal.
What is Impact Factor???

Check the webpage of the selected journal and download
the Guide for Authors. Read the guidelines again and
again!
It generally include detailed editorial guidelines,
submission procedures, fees for publishing open access,
and copyright and ethical guidelines.
You must know that all editors hate wasting time on poorly
prepared manuscripts.

SECTION FOR INDEXING MAIN TEXT ADDITIONAL SECTIONS
 Title
 Authors
 Affiliations
 Abstracts
 Keywords
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
 Discussions
 Conclusions
 Acknowledgements
 References
 Supplementary
Materials/Annexes

The structure of full articles follows the IMRAD format, introduces as a
standard by the American National Standards Institute:
INTRODUCTION
What did you/others do? Why did you
do it?
METHODS How did you do it?
RESULTS What did you find?
DISCUSSIONS What does it all mean?

One of the worst things in science is plagiarism.
 Plagiarism and stealing work from colleagues can lead to serious
consequences, both professionally and legally.
 Violations include data fabrication and falsification, improper use
of human subjects and animals in research, and using another
author’s ideas or wording without proper attribution (It’s also
possible to commit ethics violations without intending to).
 Educational resources include the Publishing Ethics Resources Kits
(PERK) from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and
Elsevier’s Ethics in Publication & Research Website

 The topic to be studied should be the first issue to be solved. Define
your hypothesis and objectives (These will go in the Introduction.)
 Review the literature related to the topic and select some papers
(about 30) that can be cited in your paper (These will be listed in the
References.)
 Finally, keep in mind that each publisher has its own style guidelines
and preferences, so always consult the publisher's Guide for Authors.
But before you set out to write a paper, there are two important things you
should do that will set the groundwork for the entire process.

If you are using photographs, each must have a scale marker,or
scale bar, of professional quality in one corner.

How the problem was
studied?
Include detailed information
so a knowledgeable reader
can reproduce the
experiment.
Do not repeat the details of
established methods. Broad
summaries or key references
are sufficient.

List the methods in the same order they will appear
in the Results section, in the logical order in which
you did the research:
Description of the site
Description of the surveys or experiments done
Description of the laboratory methods
Description of the statistical methods used
(including confidence levels, etc.)

 This section responds to the
question "What have you
found?"
Hence, only representative
results from your research
should be presented.The
results should be essential
for discussion.

Some tips in writing results:
For numbers,use two significant digits unless more precision is
necessary (2.08, not 2.07856444).
Never use percentages for very small samples e.g., "one out of
two" should not be replaced by 50%.
Remember that most journals offer the possibility of adding
Supporting Materials, so use them freely for data of secondary
importance. In this way, do not attempt to "hide" data in the
hope of saving it for a later paper.
An important issue is that you must not include references in
this section; you are presenting your results, so you cannot refer
to others here.

 What do the results mean? So what?
The hardest section to get right
Take into account that a huge
numbers of manuscripts are rejected
because the Discussion is weak.
You need to make the Discussion
corresponding to the Results, but do
not reiterate the results.
You need to compare the published
results by your colleagues with yours

Some tips for discussion:
Avoid statements that go beyond what the results can support
Avoid unspecific expressions such as "higher temperature", "at
a lower rate", "highly significant". Quantitative descriptions are
always preferred
Avoid sudden introduction of new terms or ideas; you must
present everything in the introduction, to be confronted with
your results here.
Speculations on possible interpretations are allowed, but these
should be rooted in fact, rather than imagination.
Revision of Results and Discussion is not just paper work.

 This section shows how the work
advances the field from the present
state of knowledge.
A common error in this section is
repeating the abstract, or just listing
experimental results.
Trivial statements of your results are
unacceptable in this section.

 This is your opportunity to convince
readers that you clearly know why
your work is useful.
A good introduction should answer
the following questions:
What is the problem to be solved?
Are there any existing solutions?
Which is the best/recommended?
What is its main limitation?
What do you hope to achieve?

Some tips in writing the introduction:
Never use more words than necessary (be concise and to-the-
point). Don't make this section into a history lesson.Long
introductions put readers off.
The introduction must be organized from the global to the
particular point of view,guiding the readers to your objectives
when writing this paper.
Hypothesis and objectives must be clearly remarked at the end
of the introduction.

The abstract tells prospective
readers what you did and what the
important findings in your research
were.
Together with the title, it's the
advertisement of your article.
Make it interesting and easily
understood without reading the
whole article.
Avoid using jargon,uncommon
abbreviations and references.
A clear abstract will strongly
influence whether or not your work is
further considered.

The title must explain what the
paper is broadly about. It is your
first (and probably only)
opportunity to attract the
reader's attention.
Remember that the first readers
are the Editor and the referees.
Also, readers are the potential
authors who will cite your
article, so the first impression is
powerful!

When looking for keywords,avoid
words with a broad meaning and
words already included in the title.
Some journals require that the
keywords are not those from the
journal name, because it is implicit
that the topic is that.
For example,the journal Soil Biology
& Biochemistry requires that the word
"soil" not be selected as a keyword.

Here, you can thank people who have
contributed to the manuscript but not
to the extent where that would justify
authorship.
Probably,the most important thing is
to thank your funding agency or the
agency giving you a grant or
fellowship.

 Typically, there are more mistakes in the
references than in any other part of the
manuscript.
 In the text, you must cite all the scientific
publications on which your work is based.
 But do not over-inflate the manuscript with too
many references
 Avoid excessive self-citations and excessive
citations of publications from the same region.
 Minimize personal communications, do not
include unpublished observations,
manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted
for publication, publications that are not peer
reviewed, or articles not published in English.

References:
Borja, Angel. Six things to do before writing your manuscript. May 12,
2014. https://www.elsevier.com/connect/six-things-to-do-before-writing-
your-manuscript
Borja, Angel. 11 steps to structuring a science paper editors will take
seriously. June 24, 2014. https://www.elsevier.com/connect/11-steps-to-
structuring-a-science-paper-editors-will-take-seriously
UPLB RDE Digest Vol.9 No.1

Juniel Publish or perish.pdf

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