Humble effort made in the form of this presentation will assist in the accomplishment of exploratory as well as result-oriented research studies. I shall feel amply rewarded if this slides proves helpful in the development of genuine research studies. As a scientist, we must write, and, as an experimentalist, writing while you work strengthens your research. Writing a paper can be an integral part of observational science. Our manuscript can even be a blueprint for our experiments.

1. Scientific Research and
Publication: Walk Through
Dr. Roshni S. Vora, M.Pharm., PhD
Email: mehtaroshni1989@gmail.com

2. Research: Scientific investigation with care and systematized manner.
Why Research?
• Get a research degree along with its consequential benefits
• Face the challenge in solving the unsolved problems
• Intellectual joy of doing some creative work
• Service to society and to get respectability
Why Publication?
• A tool for sharing of information.
• Spreadour work to globalcommunity
• Gain prestige andrecognitionfrom ourpeers
• Toshowour researchperformanceto our fundingbodies
• Tovalidate ourfindings
Importanceofjournals
• Mainvehiclefor scholarly communication
• Ensurepeerreview andqualitycontrol
• Afastwayto communicate our findings

3. Research
1. Scientific Workflows as per Laboratory Protocols
2. Laboratory Experiments
3. Steps forResearch Process
a) Defineaquestion
b) Gatherinformation
c) Formulatehypothesis
d) Designresearch
e) Analyze and Interpret thedata
f) Publishthe resultsthrough the rightchannel

4. 1. Scientific Workflows as per Laboratory Protocols
Lab book
Laboratory protocol (recipe) Experiment Digital Entry
2. Laboratory Experiments
a) Liquid paraffin castor oil emulsion
b) Calamine lotion

5. 3. Steps for Research Process
a) Define aquestion
• Whatdo we want to know?: Defining theproblem
• Whyisit important?: Justifying thestudy
• Whydowe want to know it?: Setthe aims
b) Gatherinformation
Hasisbeen alreadystudied?
If it has,let’s review the state-of-the-art:
• Learnabout itsnovelty
• Establishthe theoreticalframework
• Compareresults
c) Formulatehypothesis
• Definethe topic (time period, unit of analysis, limits, theories)
• Settheobjectives and Formulate thehypothesis
• Valuethe importance (novelty,viability, relevance)
d) Designresearch
• Establish amethodology: What are we going to
do?How?Withwhich tools? When?Where?
• Unit of analysis?Whichisthe sample?
• Gather and process the data: Systematic data
retrieval, Statistical techniques
e) Analyze and Interpret thedata:
• Write a manuscript following the IMRAD
structure
• Thismanuscript isthe one that will be later on
submitted to a journal in order to…PUBLISH
THERESULTS
f)Publishthe resultsthrough the rightchannel

6. Publication
1. Article types
2. SelectionofJournals
3. General structure of the research paper
4. Tips and hints on scientific writing
a) Style and formatting of academic texts in english – recommendations
b) Establishing apublication strategy: collaboration and authorship
c) Make a good literature review
d) Respect authors’guidelines
e) Ethical Rules: “Publish AND Perish – if you break ethicalrules.”
5. WhatisPeerreviewprocess?
a) What can we have in a review?
b) Accept rejection gracefully
6.Citations
7. Impact factor (IF)

7. 1. Article types
• Full-length articles are original, unpublished primary research. Extensions of work that has been
published previously in short form such as a Communication are usually acceptable.
• Short communications must contain original and highly significant work whose high novelty warrants
rapid publication.
• Review articles an authoritative overview of a field, a comprehensive literature reviews, or tutorial-style
reference materials. Reviews are usually invited by the editor
2.Selection of Journals
• Identify the audience to which you are targeting and Double check which type of papers they publish
• Read the journal’sscope and reviewed process carefully
• journal indexed/listed in UGC, Web of Science (WoS), SCI, Scopus, SSCI, A&HCI, ICI
• Journal present in databases like ABDC, EMRALD, EMBASE, EBSCO, PubMed, Chemical Abstract Services (CAs)

8. Section Purpose of the Section
Title A clear description of thecontents
Authors and affiliations Listing of the group of authors
Abstract Tobriefly introduce the reader to the aims of the study, the methodology, results and findings.
Keywords Identification in databases
Introduction Overall purpose for the study. To define the research question(s) of the study and give a brief
background of relevant theory
Literature Review To summarize what conclusions have been reached in the research literature and whether different
writers agree or not. Tohighlight main issue and controversies around the problem.
Methodology To demonstrate that you are aware of the research methods used to study this topic and
justify the method of data collection and analysis.
Results To present the findings of your research in an orderly manner, using heading planned in your
methodology or headings arising from patterns found in the research.
Discussion Tocomment /findings and show your understanding of what your data suggests.
Tohighlight anything unexpected that came up.
Conclusion Tosum up your findings and highlight the significance of the outcomes of your study.
Todiscuss the limitations of your study and indicate where further research is needed.
Reference Tolist alphabetically all the reference materials that have been cited in the text of the report.
Acknowledgments Include persons who havehelped the author during his/herresearch
3. General structure of the research paper

9. 4. Tipsand hints on scientificwriting
a) Style and formatting of academic textsin english – recommendations
Verb tenses
• Present tense for known facts and hypotheses (e.g. “The average life of a honeybee is 6 weeks.”)
• Past tense for the description of experiments carriedout (e.g. “All the honeybees were maintained at 23°C.”)
• Past tense for the description of results (e.g. “The average life span of bees was 8 weeks.”)
Writing style
• Use short sentences. The active voice may shorten sentences. (e.g. “It was found that there had been…”
(passivevoice) vs. “We found that…” (active voice)
• Contracted verb forms are NOT allowed (e.g. “it’s”, “weren’t”,“hasn’t”).
• Minimize the use of adverbs (e.g. : “however”, “in addition”...).
A manuscript written in poor English has low chances tobe accepted for publication!

10. b) Establishing apublication strategy: collaboration and authorship
Collaboration
• Teamwork allowsresearchersto confront andfulfill large researchprojects
• Themore people involved on the writing of apaper the more polished the
final version it will betheoretically
• Collaborating involves strengthening social networks and fostering
creativity
• Collaboration allows developinginterdisciplinary research
Authorship
• Authorship isarecurrent source of controversy among collaborators
• It is advisable to agree on authorship position before conducting the
research
• The authors’ position reflect their contribution to the paper

11. c) Make a good literature review
• Be honest when citing, do not omit competitors
• Cite the most recent literature (international papers, use scientific databases)
d) Respect authors’guidelines
• Before submitting a manuscript Don’t forget to acknowledge the person who plays a major part in your work
• Authors should include a cover letter detailing key findings and highlight the novel aspects of their
manuscript.
e) Ethical Rules: “Publish AND Perish – if you break ethicalrules.” Avoid the following
• Falsification of results and data and Submission of previously published work
• Plagiarism incl. incorrect citations, unauthorized use of figures,etc.
• Simultaneous submission of the manuscript to two or moreeditors
• Submission of manuscripts without informing all co-authors
• Financial support awarded in an inappropriate/incorrect manner
• Failure to disclose any potential conflict of interests

12. 5. What is Peer review process?: The principal mechanism for quality
control in most scientific disciplines.
It ensures credibility.
Blind review: reviewers do know the authors
identity
Double-blind review None, authors or reviewers
know which the identity of the other
Open peer review Both, authors and reviewers
know which the identity of the other

13. a) What can we have in a review?
• Comments implying retrieving new data, processing it and redoing the paper
• Comments which do not imply changing the paper but responding to the reviewer
• Comments which involve minor changes
• Comments which imply modifying the text without further discussion
This may be one of the hardest moments, we must study the reviewers comments and respond to them in
for their commentaries with politely, even if you don’tagree
b) Accept rejection gracefully
• Change the perspective: Adapt to international standards
• Change the strategy : Less papers but better
• Change the topics: Search for relevant research questions in your area

14. 6. Citations
• Citations reflect the importance or impact of research contributions among the scientificcommunity
• Support the authors’arguments and compareor validatethe work of authors
• Citations are usedasameasureof visibility and impact for journals and of recognition for researchers.
7. Impact factor (IF):
• One of the most frequently used indicators of quality of academic publications (journals). Ratio between the
number of citations to current articles and the number of published articles
• Example: Calculation for 2021:
Number of citations to articles published between 2020 and 2019 = 505
Number of published articles in the relevant journal between 2020 and 2019 = 100
IF= 505/100= 5.05

15. RecommendedReadings
Thank You